Fair Play
Marion Coutts Fresh Air 1998 - 2000
1 October to 11 November 2001
Jananne Al-Ani Ellen Bigge
Marion Coutts Nicky Coutts Goldfrapp & Fox An exhibition curated by Jananne Al-Ani and Frances Kearney Fair Play is an exhibition of works by 14 artists exploring games, toys and the activity of playing. Games as ritual, metaphor and symbol. Games about wealth and class and battles for territory. Games of illusion, trickery and fantasy. Solitary or team effort, communal competition, initiation rite and endurance test. The question of who is in control of the image is an issue in the work of Bettina von Zwehl. She will be showing a diptych from the series An Anatomy of Control that consists of seven pairs of photographs of children ranging from the ages of two to ten. Using a long cable release, each child has completed the task of taking his or her own photograph in a studio set-up contrived by the artist. Ann Jones investigates the rituals performed around the preparation and consumption of food. In her video work Pointless Challenges, Jones re-enacts competitions half-remembered from childhood, like eating doughnuts without licking ones lips. Challenges tainting essentially pleasurable activities with discomfort and introducing the need for concentration on the process of eating rather than allowing oneself to savour taste or sensation. With Fresh Air, a table-tennis table in the shape of Battersea Park, Marion Coutts transforms the notion of a shared, public space designed for recreation and leisure. In Decalogue, a set of ten skittles, each inscribed with one of the commandments, Coutts wittily reminds us of the fragility of law and order by reducing an ethical and moral code to a playful challenge. Simon Moretti's groupings of small card and paper sculptures parody Modernist sculpture. They are made using a cut out and slot in system and invite interaction despite their apparent fragility. The sculptures swarm in small groups on the floor, the mantle piece and the furniture like 3D drawings coming to life. Sheep Count is a new series of subtly manipulated photographs by Nicky Coutts. The work was inspired by a relative who believes he is able to arrange sheep from a distance, lining them up and moving them around as he pleases each night before sleeping. Anna Fox and Alison Goldfrapp have collaborated to produce the series Country Girls. Goldfrapp & Fox will show two images from the series documenting performances which tread a fine line between horror and sensation. In Sex, Lies and Binary Logic, Michael Guida & Mark Winstanley have created an interactive work, which revolves around the notion of a lie-detector test. The work engages with issues of power and control and the evolving relationship between man and machine. A catalogue with an essay by David Barrett is available.
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