[CONVERSATIONS]

 

‘You can touch it.’

Buzz yourself in at the gates of 144 Liverpool Road. A Parisian courtyard. Spinach looks like an architect’s studio, with pods and partitions, juxtapositions and breaks of colour. It isn’t, it’s where a ‘New Age’ qualitative research company is based, in London. Spinach. This is where David MacDiarmid exhibits his work. Perhaps due to the out-of-gallery context, it isn’t so surreal to be told: Touch it.

All the employees are named and pictured on their individual lockers. An anonymous locker is called ‘Intern.’ Their names are also displayed on a white board in the central pod. The employees’ energy and the day’s work have a strong presence despite it being out of hours, 8pm. Phones are individually named too, and have been pushed to one side for MacDiarmid’s Private View.

Above the lockers, a sculpture floats. Metal?

‘I’ve just drawn on it.’

Manipulated into elegant and sharp folds, ‘it makes the metal lockers look less metal.’


‘You can touch it’

MacDiarmid wants you to know what it’s made of. He wants you to be a part of it. He takes us round. It’s an old building with modern furnishings. His Scottish accent is brilliantly enlivening, and he shows us around with such timid passion you’re immediately drawn in. To the right, he opens a door to a meeting room. We squeeze past a couple having a wanky conversation. Art.

It’s like a playground. Coloured window boxes interject in and out of this pod with delicate sculptures in each. Once again, they float, and the colour filters of the window give MacDiarmid’s work another dimension. It’s fun. He’s fun.

 

‘You don’t know what’s going to come of it…’

That’s true, and it’s true for many things in life. Am at a ‘st-age’ where ‘life’ is what makes up most of my conversations. Need money, need a job, career, food. You’ve got to make your own opportunities I’ve decided. If you want to feature in a show, make the show. Create.

MacDiarmid goes against this. He has a show, he was invited, he has a residency at Extractor Space, he’s an artist. It’s perhaps luck, or perhaps not. It’s life. But this playful show is refreshing. The juxtaposition of dated folders on the white shelves of the office to Macdiarmid’s shelf work is spirited.

‘A Paper Artist?’

This particular piece was the result of an exercise he was taught. Cut the paper as thin as you can and crumple it. Middle shelf, far right. Blue

‘How do you transport your work?’

‘Roll it up and re-crease it. Manipulation.’

Geometry, everyday materials – including a 70s orange and brown carpet, ‘Volcanic’, and representations of science in the media make up MacDiarmid’s practice and his works at Spinach will be added to and/or replaced over the process, promoting a continuous exchange of ideas between the artist and the company. An invitation to return to Spinach and follow MacDiarmid’s work on www.davidmacdiarmid.com.


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