Subterraneans

14th April -5th May 1995

A exhibition of new work by 11 artists exploring ‘How and what to paint in the 1990’s’.

Artists: Roland Buckingham, Siofra Campbell, Robin Carson, Mark Dale, John Mathers, Dougal MacKenzie, Susan MacWilliam,  Dani Pico Peris, Eimar Walsh, Mike Wilson

Review. Circa No 73 Autumn 1995, Damien Coyle

Subterraneans

CATALYST ARTS, BELFAST

April-May 1995

As a background brief to Subterrancans the eleven participating artists were asked to challenge and question notions of ‘How to paint and what to paint in the 1990s’. With such an intimidating brief it came as little surprise that not all accepted the challenge. Some were moderately successful at fulfilling the brief while others seemingly ignored the diktat and continued as before. To an extent this was understandable as the selected artists had been chosen as they were perceived to have had addressed themselves to such issues in their recent works. It became apparent that some were not considered painters per se particularly as it was these ‘non-painters’ who picked up the gauntlet and explored the theme while the ‘painters’ complacency showed through.

-221This said, there were some interesting works on show with a few that stood with strength and merit. From this group Eimer Walsh, Daniel Pico Peris, Dougal McKenzie, Mike Wilson, Theo Sims and Susan MacWilliam exhibited the stronger content though not all seemed to have worked to the same brief. Sims and MacWilliams were perhaps the most successful with Sims displaying his usual cleverness in visual sleight or hand or eye with After Meal A. This consisted of a brown take away food bag holding the post meal debris of foil dishes and lids and was mounted to the wall on a grey square base. Two or three viewings later, I began to decipher the subtle image which had been painted onto the bag using oil. Perhaps some viewers would have passed over this as being a conventional grease stain, except that with Sims work we have been trained to expect the unexpected and therefore examine more closely. MacWilliams in turn created a visual effect that offended the sensibilities with Disco, not so much a reference to the trendy New York clubs of the seventies but more the gaudy aesthetic of a country ballroom of the same era. With the retro usage of blue cord drapes, pink/blue glitter background, and dance shoe motif — there was not a dash of a paint in sight. No description can adequately capture the effect, you had to be there. You had to cringe and you had to admire.

A surprise came a few weeks after Subterraneans when I attended the degree shows in Belfast and realised that one of the exhibitors from Catalyst, Eimer Walsh, was still a student. From the quality and maturity of her work I had assumed that Walsh had been involved in art production for quite a while. Her untitled pieces composed of layered and textured plaster surfaces with insinuated pigmentation had a quality, despite the scale, of monolith and monumentality. Her degree show was even more impressive than the Catalyst outing as was that of Roland Buckingham who worked with

printing inks of layers on glass and who in choosing to exhibit Cocyx had selected one of his weaker works and would have impressed had he chosen another from his final show.

Daniel Pico Peris exhibited three works titled 95 Pintura-Pintura linked by the recurring use of artist’s palette and stretcher as reference point. The first and most successful was a floor-based, quarter dissected facsimile of a palette; the second, a series of stretchers located in the skylights with the canvas surface facing towards the Gods and the viewer being left with the back of the stretcher frames to peruse. The third and least successful was a series of connecting canvas stretchers jutting forward and round from wall to wall in an arch formation. This was then further earthed to the topic with a large black silhouette of an artist’s palette painted onto the wall behind. Pico Peris may have ignored the brief yet still produced interesting work, so perhaps it was just as well that he dealt with tools and processes rather than purpose and definitions. Another artist, Mike Wilson, also worked directly onto the wall. In Wilson’s case he displayed works both in and outside the gallery and was therefore the onIv participant to question where to paint in the 1990s as opposed to what and how. In a country where some of the most effective visual images occur on walls rather than on canvas it was indeed a challenge for Wilson to attempt to impose an ‘Artist’s’ concept on such a loaded medium. Wilson limited himself to text such as “Small children smear glasses with vaseline to create the impression of mystery and sentiment” and in doing so I felt he did not fall into the trap of trying to compete, and this gave his work an added validity.

Of the rest, Mark Dale choose a shelf on which to display his series of small paintings. Unfortunately the format and positioning detracted from the obvious quality of the work: it was one of those situations in which I as a viewer am on the verge of doing the unthinkable and handling art so that I could have a closer look. I wish I had, as I had the feeling that I something pleasurable. Siofra Campbell’s Progress involved a series of four body prints on plastic sheeting far to reminiscent of Yves Klein - down to the point of use of IKB. Finally Dougal McKenzie selected mixed media on bed blanket and bed sheet as his materials. The essence was of a badly folded stained bed, but McKenzie was able to involve texture, surface, planes, mark image, implied text and smell. The image of a female figure running into the distance and away from the male figure, a tree in the background, the soiled and torn sheets brought to mind thoughts of violence, forbidden sex, Adam and Eve and so on. This to me was the individual piece that stood out from the rest. 

If I was asked to judge the show on its intended aim then I would state that it was a failure. However if I applied my own criteria for assesing the situation then I would have to state that it contained a great deal more interesting work that was being shown elsewhere in Belfast at the time. Although one or two pourer pieces brought it precariously close to the edge of the Abyss that is a forgettable exhibition, luckily the good outweighed the bad.

Damien Coyle

Circa Art Magazine 

No 73 Autumn 1995