Man & Machine, a show of recent work by Will Collieson at the Bermuda Society of Arts’ Edinburgh Gallery at the City Hall

THE idiosyncratic and often humorous creations of Will Collieson have become a regular feature in art galleries throughout the Island. It is, however, an unusual pleasure to find a show entirely devoted to his work. At the Bermuda Society of Arts’ Edinburgh Gallery just such a show is to be seen and the show has every sign of having been carefully considered by the artist. It is remarkably cohesive for one whose work has never been characterised by uniformity of style.The central feature of the show is an assemblage of a crank handled cogwheel, wood, and nails, the whole mounted on a steel girder. We have become accustomed to thinking of hard drives in terms of the inner workings of computers. This work returns us to the good old-fashioned, Bermudian term “hard”. Therein, of course, lies Mr. Collieson’s inimitable sense of humour.

Nearby stands a chair with a slice cut out of its middle, making it appear anything but comfortable. Real estate agents won|0xb9|t be pleased with it as advertising. Its title is Fractional Ownershi>. Only Mr. Collieson would see Figure with Hat in an ancient, rusted, iron nail, now smartly painted in shellac and mounted vertically in a wooden base. Of course it|0xb9|s a figure with haI>

Logo<$> left me searching for the humour. It is a circle on bits of wood with what might once have been an arrow diagonally across it. Please <$>, too, left me floundering for its underlying humour. Perhaps I was in an insufficiently frivolous mood.

Shral<$> is the work that greets the viewer in entering the gallery. It isn’t for sale because it isn|0xb9|t a unified creation, merely bits of ancient metal composed on and pendent from a flat surface. Next to it is Black St <$>to fully appreciate which one must be either pretty old or a historian. It is a bas-relief of shirt, jacket and tie painted black and very stiff and severe. It harks back to the pre-war days of fascism and Nazism.

Catalogue in hand and expecting a piece titled Entrance Bked<$>, I rounded a screened corner to see a couple of oldish looking louvered doors held shut by a hasp without a padlock. For a moment I was convinced this was another piece of Collieson humour, but no. Entrance cked<$> turned out to be a painted abstract of stones. The door was closing off gallery storage space.

The remaining pieces are small, intricate and composed of the kind of rescued materials in which Mr. Collieson so delights for their patina and decay. Untitled consists of copper nails and flaked off corroded copper from goodness knows what original purpose. The result is fasciing. Cast Iron Shore is a collage of rusted metal flakes and produces a similar textured effect. Quite what the ingredients of Blowing in the Wind were I couldn|0xb9|t make out. It was dark, textured and somber and had enough coherent movement to justify its title. I could see a small army of ancient warriors in it.

Because of the delayed opening of the show and the Saturday closure of the gallery this review is unlikely to see publication before the show comes down. That is a pity, because of the now four gallery spaces at the Society of Arts, this was the most interesting.