"The wit of Collis' work lies in the time-consuming effort involved in her production of useful looking useless objects, redundant or surplus to requirments, that disclose their true nature on closer scutiny" - Programme guide.
I must have missed the wit involved within her, what seemed, tiresome efforts to apply rather talented techniques to "useful looking useless objects", which stems the general feel for what I had for this particular exhibition. I didn't quite understand the bigger picture of why she decided to add nails of gold and silver to planks or why she embroidered 'paint splatters' onto a cloth. Though it was eye-opening to have to get close to each piece to decipher what Collis' had done I didn't really get a feel or motive for them. It just felt like another artist applying expensive matierals to modane subject matter. In general it was interesting but rather boring all in all.
Ron Terada's 'Who I Think I Am' felt a little more personal, though the personality there was actually a chapter taken from the memoirs of Jack Goldstein. I can only imagine Terada really connected with the dwells and loss of ambition/motivation Goldstein had come to before commiting suicide in 2003. It's effective to see such a subject in a large size against a black background, quite blatant, quite stark and rather daunting when the room is just filled with thoughts. The only piece that takes away from it all was the neon sign in the corner with the word "Big", I'm not quite sure I saw the correlation between the two pieces or why it was even there. Supposedly it is the logo of a rock band who stole the logo from a local supermarket chain. Maybe he was trying to communicate the desperation Goldstein went through to "make it" and the lack of consideration corporations have towards respecting such an artist.... maybe? Either way this exhibition felt like it had heart, and meaning.
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