INTERFACE

REVIEW

Emergency 4

Aspex, Portsmouth, 14 November - 24 January

Reviewed by: Peter Bonnell »

The opportunity pages of this magazine contain a cornucopia of notices inviting artists to submit work for juried exhibitions. One of the most outstanding is Aspex's 'Emergency' competition, now in its fourth incarnation and boasting a stellar selection panel: artist David Blandy; curator Deborah Smith; Modern Art Oxford Director Michael Stanley and Aspex? Director Joanne Bushnell. The rigorous manner in which 'Emergency' shows are selected is intensive; almost 600 artists apply each time, with few being chosen - and just ten selected for exhibition on this occasion. 'Emergency 4' could be characterised as a distillation of the best of the best, concerned with quality over quantity - a showcase for emerging artists of note.

Organising these selected artists into a coherent exhibition is daunting, yet the curatorial handling of 'Emergency 4' is sympathetic and dynamic, transcending the salon-style hang of many open call shows, and teasing out evidently inherent themes of playfulness and political enquiry. The layout of the exhibition has also been well conceived; Aspex's long and narrow main gallery has been dissected by two imposing walls, dividing the space into three. The walls frame the large heavy doors directly opposite the entrance that are problematic in that they are essentially 'dead' space. They have, however, been effectively neutralised by Chloe Brooks' The Technical Capacity of an Age (2009), one of her two site-specific responses to the space. Here Brooks has placed, either side of the gallery entrance, facsimiles of the doors, rendered in thin sheets of white painted MDF that sag in subtle retort to their surroundings.

Subtlety characterises much of the work in 'Emergency 4', from the melancholic brass band music that periodically floats through the space - part of Katie Davies' Commonwealth (2008), a sympathetic documentary focussing on immigration to the UK - to Femmy Otten's site-specific installation featuring a range of techniques applied directly to the gallery walls. Otten's eclectic imagery is enchanting and original, in its use of fairytale motifs, for example, but also veers into whimsy and cliché. Opposite Otten's work, Jack Southern's upturned, flickering TV plays a dizzying stream of images culled from free newspapers, positing a subtle critique of media ubiquity. In contrast are Glad Fryer's elegant and restrained installation of images, America and Me (2009) featuring line drawings of pivotal events in American history and his own life, overlaid on images of Native American and Wild West tableaux. This juxtaposition of racial and political source images creates an interesting dichotomy between what America once was, and what it has become. Directly opposite are Katie Pratt's three large, imposing, decidedly unsubtle canvases. Pratt's paintings appear anachronistic in style and mark making, but happily succeed by sheer intensity, adding a counterbalancing vibrancy to an overtly deadpan exhibition. Further counteracting the deadpan is Eunju Yoo's Me Dancing in Your Dreams (2008). Eunju's film, presented on a flat monitor with headphones is hilariously surreal, creepy and deeply unsettling. It is also quite wonderful - a black and white collaged film, with manic sound effects that evokes our worst nightmares. The space behind Eunju's work, to the right of the gallery entrance contains three neat, sober paintings by Charlotte C Mortensson, paintings that showcase an incredible technique that is both realistic and stylised. However, the thesis attached to Mortensson's work does not convince; her imagery does reflect themes of heaviness and claustrophobia, such as with Hole (2009), a painting that depicts the bleak entrance to an old canal tunnel, but suggestions of movement and escape do not ring true. These are paintings drenched in eerie stillness. Opposite Mortensson's work are three projected films by Karin Kihlberg and Reuben Henry - worthy winners of 'Emergency 4', with the prize of a solo show at Aspex in 2011. Their clever and funny films dissect cinematic conventions and the role of the audience. The standout film here features two wonderfully clunky cardboard robots that perform a slow and mesmeric dance around a flour circle, in a gallery space before a bemused audience. The serene slapstick of this film is a delight, particularly when the robots come together in a perverse join of cardboard tubes, and ends abruptly as the hand of one artist reaches from within one robot to the other to unceremoniously click off the tape recorder acting as the soundtrack.

'Emergency 4' is, rightly, a highly regarded competition and one that will continue to champion emerging artists. But what of the future, for such open call competitions? There is an obvious demand for open call competitions to continue, and it is heartening that many galleries have incorporated them into their programming. To be rejected must be dispiriting for many and an exciting affirmation for those artists who are selected. But where the simple aspiration to have your work seen by a distinguished panel, and possibility of having it shown, motivates many artists, there is also scope for open competitions to find ways to raise the bar further by becoming ever more competitive.

Writer detail:
Exhibitions and Education Officer at ArtSway.

Venue detail:
Aspex »
The Vulcan Building, Gunwharf Quays, PORTSMOUTH PO1 3BF

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