ARTISTS TALKING

Saltburn Artists’ Projects, Saltburn-by-the-Sea
25 May – 2 July

The exhibition ‘Work and Play’ at Saltburn Artists’ Projects seems to possess a simplicity that belies the conceptual stance taken by this artist in her approach to the questioning of the Fine and Applied Art disciplines.

The first space in the gallery contains an immediacy of colour (the painted walls as background), signalling a visual identity for the display of multiple and edition works. This is one of the main thematics to the exhibition, interestingly holding the contrary positions of being bold, vibrant and immediate, whilst also demonstrating a subtle, natural and sophisticated use of colour as an applied discipline in itself. Through the scope of the varied practice illustrated through the objects included, it is apparent that Kerry Harker has a considerable ability and affinity with colour. This informs her practice regardless of her choice of conceptual expression.

Within the space, the objects displayed have a quiet and slightly melancholy feel: Bud, a three tiered shelf construction displaying multiple bone china vases would be lost into the realms of the purely aesthetic if it wasn’t for the limited introduction of a muted transfer detail. An image of a flower on the bottom shelf is repeated on the top shelf, next to an image of a mushroom cloud handled in a similar scheme of red and blue. The visual sympathy between the bloom and the nuclear blast is a dialogue of subtlety and skilful playfulness that underpins the other pieces in the room.

Narcissist comprises of a t-shirt with the word printed backwards across the chest. It has an instant degree of kitsch implicit in its design, but is transformed through the mode of its display. Suspended from the ceiling a shirt with this word described white against a vibrant orange slowly moves and spins until very occasionally it meets its own reflection in a giant hand mirror with a blood red frame against a vibrant green wall. As the reflection briefly holds, the word ‘Narcissist’ is visible, readable and open. A slow journey that transcribes the act of self-knowledge through extending the boundaries of egotism.

In the second gallery, a multiple installation of white ceramic plates against a wallpaper busy with pattern and floral detail engages thoughts of domesticity whilst questioning Western art tradition. Each plate relates a colour name (described through another colour) across its surface. Why does this relate to painting? How does this resonate with craft? Are there boundaries?

There is a quiet, calm and questioning yet playful and rigorous intellect behind the work. Kerry Harker is an artist who exemplifies an eclectic take on the structures and contexts of postmodernism, but who also knows that sometimes whispering can achieve far more than shouting.

Peter Heselton

Peter Heselton is a fine artist, curator, writer and also Project Manager for MAP-Tees Valley Artists Network.

p_r_heselton@hotmail.com | www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile//88885.html

First published: a-n Magazine August 2007