Tony Drumm at the Bath Street Gallery 2011
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Every irony (good or bad) must, of necessity contain its opposite: “teeth like stars…” so the joke goes, a complement proffered only to be undermined. “…they come out at night” or “… few and far between. If not quite the opposite of sculpture these works certainly attempt to undermine their own conditions of reception. Referencing the trope of the “grotesque” (decorative human/ vegetal/animal forms), in these sculptures beauty and abjection coalesce as melancholy monuments. Concerned with a certain representational impossibilities (sculpted birds in flight, plaster as hair, plastic foam as atmosphere), and exhibiting a variety of making techniques (multiple castings, model making, assemblage,), these pieces recite sculpture and its opposites, the prop and the objet décor as a sort of proposition, a performative object. Figurative elements are supported (and contradicted) by geometric stands and cascadingbeads (a promiscuity of forms comparable to the aesthetics of a ten dollar note). While the works relate to a modern sculptural tradition they sympathise with it’s less acknowledged forms of expression décor , which may be considered shrill or decadent or overtly decorative. See more at The Bath Street Gallery | ||
TEETHLIKESTARS - Sculpture by Tony Drumm