`Line-up' a refreshing retro romp through pop
Bermuda Society of Arts, City Hall, Hamilton. Until Friday.
All three artists on show at the Bermuda Society of Arts deserve more than Andy Warhol's fifteen minutes of fame.
For a show which draws heavily on '60s pop art provides a welcome breath of fresh air to the Bermudian arts scene and underlines the fact that there are original pairs of eyes out there.
Jennifer Stobo gives a nod in the direction of New York's most famous blond of the '60s with her series of small acrylic works elevating the throwaway -- a tea bag, a bathroom cabinet, a sardine tin, a bottle cap and a ketchup sachet -- into sharp-edged and witty art.
She carries the joke further by repeating it in a series of papier mache works on the same themes.
Her marvellous "Medicine Cabinet Study'' is immensely rewarding, right down to the length of dental floss trailing to the floor and a hairbrush complete with strands of hair.
It's almost embarrassing looking inside -- it's the sort of thing one normally does with the loo door closed.
"Isn't Life Great (Fridge Study)'' works well on the same level. The detritus of normal life -- including injunctions to exercise more and a postcard from a friend -- are stuck to her massive '50s-style fridge.
Again the irresistible urge to look inside is too great and the viewer is rewarded with a giant-sized packet of baking soda -- and nothing else.
Her "T-Shirt Study'' -- again in two-dimensional acrylic and 3-D papier mache -- is a clever reminder that art is in the eye of the beholder. And that it won't always match the sofa.
Will Collieson again shows the range of his talent and wit with a superb display of work.
And he proves lavatorial humour isn't necessarily a pejorative term with "In Lieu of Flowers'' -- an ancient chain-pull cistern with a profusion of pink roses bursting out of it.
"Warrior of the Wasteland'' is a splendidly clever piece. An upended shovel is transformed into a menacing blank-faced universal soldier with a deceptively simple T-shaped cut-out on the blade. The subtle addition of bronze and silver paint puts the viewer in mind of anything from pre-historic Celtic battle helmets and grim-faced Normans right up to post-nuclear holocaust Mad Max road warriors.
For the marvellously sinuous "Blowing in the Wind'', Collieson takes unyielding steel and turns it into a delicate, twisting and turning ribbon.
Whether the rust-streaked ribbon is a comment on the forces of nature or the darker and arguably more powerful forces of man is open to question.
It would be easy to miss the less exuberant series of black and white studies of a single nude by photographer Bruno Zapp amid the others' over-the-top approach.
But "Body of Work'' is a thoughtful and intelligent look at the form of a woman no longer young.
And his use of light and contrast points up hands used to hard work with almost painful clarity, showing every vein standing out in sharp relief.
Elbows on knees show the crinkles and folds of skin which has lost its youthful elasticity and the knotted tendons of her neck makes one question society's taboo on ageing and the cult of the supermodel.
---- Raymond Hainey
