INTERFACE

REVIEW

Coller Elective

Arena Gallery, Liverpool
1-16 May

Reviewed by: Kevin Hunt »

Arena have transformed themselves over the past three years or so, leaving their longstanding charismatic home on Duke Street in 2006, and temporarily cramming themselves into a much smaller space until arriving at their current location a few months ago, in one of many new developments in the city, the Elevator Building. A stone's throw from Greenland Street and the weighty audience pulling power that A Foundation has to offer, their latest move has resurrected a gallery, once again nestling in amongst the eclectically friendly artist-led scene in Liverpool including the likes of Red Wire, Wolstenholme Projects and the Royal Standard.

The new space is tiny, in contrast to Arena's first incarnation with four floors for exhibitions; here you would struggle to swing a cat. however, four artists comfortably exhibit in this new gallery's inaugural exhibition 'Coller Elective', an examination of artists working today with collage, a medium undergoing something of a renaissance.

All the works were wall-based, apart from Katriona Beales' All the worlds... (Open letter to Susan Boyle); a box-like miniature set which sat atop a plinth. This darkly charming landscape come dreamscape had something of Alice through the Looking Glass about it, fluctuating between the function of stage design and its futility as an artwork. By objectifying the flatness of collage into a theatrical scene, the drama was heightened. But was this some sort of poignant tragedy dedicated to a figure of current media obsession, or did such melodrama hinder the poignancy I felt it was trying to achieve?

Similarly nostalgic were tracey Eastham's beautifully presented Grace and The Lost Domain, which sat floating in backless frames, adding to their elegant mystery. One portrait, one landscape in format (and the material used), Eastham's works seemed to deal with the set traditions and established formats of art history. By slicing up and overlaying elements of torn-out sections from old art books, she reconfigures the past to create something new, yet I couldn? help but think that these petite images did anything other than wallow in their own languor.

Fiona Curran's work, Seasick on Dry Land, was a miniature rectangular painting composed from a collection of partially concealed and interconnected shapes, some painted and some stuck to the linen support. A highly abstracted, geometric little thing, this painting flung aside the baggage the other works carried, seeming at odds to the tweeness of Beales' and Eastham's works, providing a much more dynamic and fresh strain of collage, and a vitality shared with Ben Washington's enigmatically bizarre assemblages.

Hovering between realism and abstraction and locating me somewhere amid the incongruous depths of a forest and the silence of the cosmos, Washington's American Swiss and The Devil and Silbury Hill had the power to transport the viewer to another realm. A pair of green isosceles triangles floated above a lightning-like root system that spilled from their bases. Although, allusions to trees were soon cast aside in my constantly oscillating mind as I watched these pristine rockets blast into the darkness of deep space. This precarious balancing act, playing with the tangible areas of the audiences' perception and presented on a minute scale surprised me; shouting from the walls as the best work in the exhibition, giving me an appetite for more. It will be interesting to see what comes next in this small yet perfectly formed gallery. As Washington's work perhaps proved, size isn't everything.

Writer detail:
I am an artist and director of The Royal Standard, an artist led studio, gallery and social workspace in Liverpool. I make sculpture using found, discarded objects, particularly abandoned pieces of furniture which I alter, transforming them into something new and have a particular interest in contemporary British and International sculpture.

sculptureartman@gmail.com| www.kevin-hunt.co.uk

Venue detail:
Arena Studios & Gallery »
1st Floor, Elevator Building, 27 Parliament Street, Liverpool L8 5RN

Post your comment

No one has commented on this article yet, why not be the first?

To post a comment you need to login

Back to top

Back to reviews »