(RedSkyAtNight)
03.11.06- 17.11.06 Curated by Vicky Maguire & Martyn Coppell
Featuring: Alan Dunn, Alex Jackon, Rosslyn Vallejo, Louise Waller, Lizzy Caulwell, Cathy Hibbert, John Nash, David Woods & Anita Cunningham
"And in the morning, it will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?"
The colour Red has many paradoxical meanings; it is enigmatic, a passionate colour, representing love, yet also anger. It is confident and courageous yet brutal and aggressive. Intense and atmospheric, oppressive and liberating, this enigmatic colour was epitomised in the work of the abstract expressionists, finding its totality in the works of Barnet Newman & Mark Rothko. Since these explorations of the colour, artists have continued to explore the colour red according to diverse aesthetic & conceptual premises.
Alex Jacksons 'Red Soldiers' shows representations of war, and how it is ultimately futile and repetitious
Alan Dunn has reworked 1980s Flexidiscs, which were novelty items, mainly issued with 'Flexipop' magazine. They have been cut down in size and mounted on CDr's- todays equivalent of accessable DIY home produced music, which also marked the death for novelties like Flexidiscs
Above is Louise Waller's ceramic exploration between both the insides and exterior of sculpture, by highlighting the edges in red, it appears the ceramic is sandwiched together
Lizzie Caulwell works with the boundaries of what is considered beutiful and seductive, and what is seen as repulsive, by using seductive materials like organza and leather, but sontrasting it with blood red
Rosslyn Vallejo elastic bands ball induces memory of childhood collections, and how throw away items (like the postmans bands) can bring specific meaning and feeling to people
Cathy Hibbert painting ''Hitler will send no warning' (So always carry your gas mask)' is a painter over poster of Hitler as a baby, showing innocence and purity, whilst reminding us of the atrocities carried out by the Nazis, and our prior knowledge of Hitlers evil empire
David Woods 'Red Artefacts 1 & 2' "Encountering these works for the first time a viewer unfamiliar with the history of 20th century art might have trouble percieving anything but a mass of colour resembling the status of a studio floor" David Joselit (Professor of Art History at Yale University) on Jackson Pollock
John Nash 'Red Sky at Night'. This photograph conveys a feeling of intense, oppresive energy in the atmospher, and looks a the relationship between man and fire
