Derek Boshier: Chemical Culture at Flowers Central

Derek Boshier: Chemical Culture at Flowers Central

20 October, 2008
by: Katuschka

In an industry where bright new things are arriving and departing like paint splattered mayflies, and the ability to outrage has dissipated in a wishy-washy fug of post-modernist repetition, Derek Boshier is something of a legend. Therefore, his show at Flowers Central is a serious affair, leveling the playing field between big money patrons and broke art students alike with striking yet perspicacious imagery.  This new show Chemical Culture sees Boshier continuing in the popularist vein, an adjective he is wholly comfortable with, despite his critics implying a decline in the relevance of the movement in the twenty-first century.

Recurring themes such as carefully controlled matt planes of colour, cowboys, and the decimation of popular culture are all present and correct. Atomic structures, black holes, jigsaw puzzle pieces and cellular compositions detaching from his technicolour characters show culture in flux, askew and out of control, with a tenuous life support of psychotropic daydreams and lifestyle aspirations. 

Psychedelic renderings of Boccioni's Unique Forms of Continuity in Space and elements of Braque are apparent in Cubist forms. This is not a study of the human body or the natural, but of the body fractured and free-floating, distorted and monstrous - the uneasy existence of the real within the collective imagination.  Boshier depicts beings with elaborated mythologies: models, singers and athletes, icons so concerned with becoming extraordinary that they have become victims of their own legend as their immortality disintegrates into ephemera.  This is best portrayed in The Dinner Party, which shows a collection of freakish creatures with goldfish bowl and animal heads at an ostensibly high-class engagement.

Of course this all sounds terribly high falutin' and far removed from the comic-book fantasy world of Pop Art, where electric chairs buzz with colour instead of capital punishment. But there are arty fun times to be had.  There are flashes of Boshier's wry wit in floating space-cowboys, and details which are inexplicable to the point of farce.  The left leg of each figure fragments and dissolves into the gaudy ether of the background; it could be the expulsion of energy, the dispersion of creativity into nothingness, or perhaps something beyond the understanding of us mere mortals.  Perhaps Boshier is baiting his audience, understanding that the cachet of a focal discussion point and a degree of ludicrous pretension adds a certain je ne sais quoi to an idea that is, in any other context, bollocks.
 
The work is certainly compelling and eye-catching, but lacks the hip trashiness of Boshier's LA paintings where chicks with dicks, the Hollywood sign and presidential scandal lend themselves so well to his style, because the reality is not so far removed.  There is something of the '90s coffee house vibe about the subject matter and colour scheme of these paintings. Rock stars in Kangol-style hats and models in power blazers in clashing green, purple and orange seem embarrassingly outdated; and you have to wonder if comments on the throwaway nature of popular culture and drugs, are easy shots for an artist of Boshier's calibre.

Is he yawning at his audience? Churning out work for the money? At an average price of £25,000 it's not inconceivable. Yet it seems as though Boshier is merely seeking inspiration worthy of his talent, and this bodes well for the next show, when this unpredictable, stylistic dilettante may have found yet another colourful niche to crawl into. Chemical Culture may not be Boshier at his best, but even sub-par Boshier is still better than most.

Derek Boshier is at Flowers Central until 15.11.08.

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