About
Exhibition Dates: 24th March-4 April 2010
Thursday-Sunday 12-6pm
First Thursdays late opening: Thursday 1st April 6-9pm, Artists-in-conversation: 2pm, Saturday 3rd April, 2010
Curated by Patrick Michalopoulos and Ismail Erbil
Schwartz Gallery presents the work of Piers Jamson and Alistair McClymont as part of a series of two-person shows questioning exhibition-making practice. The programme aims to create an innovative platform for dialogue between the work of contemporary artists while not being a collaboration.
The specific installation parameters and physical orientation of each artist's work in the gallery space hinge on the inter-relationship between McClymont's The Limitations of Logic and the Absence of Absolute Certainty, a whirling vortex of air in the main floor space of the gallery and Piers Jamson's installation, Status, a technically ambitious take on the Victorian obsession with the skirting board, dado rail and cornice. Notions of the sublime rooted in Romanticism are juxtaposed with ideas pertaining to utopian ideals of Victorian society harking back to the classical decoration seen in the columns of ancient Greek and Roman temples. These historically specific models for perceiving reality and relating to and understanding the world are re-contextualised and re-evaluated in the gallery space.
Piers Jamson's installation entitled Status references domestic architectural detail; how the size and level of decoration determines the status of a room, but also the status of the occupants of a house in London in the late 19th Century. Status is an installation that can exist in various forms. At Schwartz Gallery we are presented with 4 corner sections inhabiting the 4 corners of the space, that allude to a much bigger installation existing outside the gallery space. All the elements that make up the vast skirting board, dado rail and cornice sections have been made by the artist, creating a range of individual profiles not normally found in a domestic interior. Scale, domestic versus gallery display models and the concept of a âVictorian Retro-Future' are questioned in Jamson's practice.
Alistair McClymont's work is about phenomena and a yearning for the sublime; a continuing process of discovery and experiment that tries to unearth processes and sensibilities that often exist in our day-to-day lives. His artwork periodically uses subjects such as advertising and comments on their use of the Romantics' sublime to promote their products. Rather than view this trend in advertising in a cynical way, the artist sees it as an indication of a deeper popular understanding of this kind of imagery, the work attempting to bring this to the fore.
While one artwork will focus on cultural interpretations of beauty, and see a new kind of beauty in those phenomena, another artwork will investigate the real thing. The Limitations of Logic and the Absence of Absolute Certainty seeks to bring a real piece of the sublime into the gallery. The piece sets up the conditions necessary in order to create a tornado. In utilising only what is necessary air can be directed to turn water vapour into a fierce vortex, one that you can touch and walk through. In its simplicity and immediacy the piece aims to give direct contact with the Romantic sublime, one of fear and beauty.
Each work will examine an individual subject, which may range from air fresheners to tornados, but it is the subject that will dictate the nature of the work. Each physical element of the piece is carefully considered, bringing the concepts to the fore. Sometimes this is done abruptly as in Honey and Almonds where each material in the sculpture was sourced from elements of the Toblerone logo. Glade®, Jasmine Mist⢠is a photograph of a domestic interior swathed in a mist of air freshener capturing a combination of moment and domestic sensibility that the name of the air freshener evokes. In this way McClymont's work spreads across many different media, but a solid conceptual direction prevails.
Piers Jamson completed his BA in Fine Art in 1998 at Leicester University. Recent exhibitions include House of Fairytales, Tate Modern, London (2009), Wonder Island, Schwartz Gallery, London (2008), FreeShow, Five Years, London, (2007), Momento Hominem, The Museum for Objects of Virtu, London, (2006), Pencil, A Drawing Exhibition, Carter Presents, London (2006). Piers Jamson lives and works in London.
Alistair McClymont graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2005. Recent solo exhibitions include The Limitations of Logic and the Absence of Absolute Certainty at Pageant (2009),The Limitations of Logic (2009), Wyer Gallery (2007), Reception Space at ACAVA (2006), Hull Art Lab (2005), and selected group exhibitions include London Art Fair, project space (2010) Affluenza (2009), Concrete and Glass (2008), Political Almanac (2007), Cologne OFF II (2006), Temporary Contemporary (2006). Alistair McClymont lives and works in London.
http://www.alistairmcclymont.com/