It was a pleasant surprise to be invited back to Samir Ceric's funky SaLon Gallery for their 'Graduate Summer Show' private view. The last show was a good opportunity to quiz Samir on his anti-elitist approach towards the art world, and although ultimately the theoretics and the concept have decided to stay good friends but see other people (Samir's take - 'I'm not really anti-establishment'), the art (after all, the above all thing) looked good and vied for your attention with bold colours, modern textures and brazen statements - the hussy. So with two skeptical yet artistically inclined friends snuck onto the guest list we headed down for some pretentiously capitalised fun.
SaLon embraces a wryly contemporary aesthetic, an amalgamation of the technicolour trashiness of Heat magazine and the burrowing endurance of universal musings. Recurrent themes of dreams, politics, domesticity, gender, the quest for originality and violence rub shoulders with (and are often played out through) candy-coated portraits of icons such as Kate Moss (Kate by Sarah Gwyer). A Pandora's box of paradoxical influences such as manga and Bosch mingle in Takayuki Hara's You Call Me Death I Give You Delights. While Guler Ates's Your Joy is Here Today What Remains for Tomorrow re-evaluates Shirin Neshat's feminist concerns in the wake of Fundamental terror by viewing her iconic, burka clad portraiture through pseudo-English veils of the St George's cross and William Morris style prints.
Gender equality and domestic violence feature often as a tense undercurrent in artists such as Bronwen Tyrell and Jorge Cabieses Vades work. Tyrell takes on gender equality in oblique yet savage pieces; her pensive, dead-eyed women are obscured and trapped under the solid frameworks of traditionally 'masculine' materials, whereas Vades aims for a more literal approach with an electric chair composed of household products. There are some cheesy puns and uninspired 'oh crap I have a show in a week' type pieces - an illuminated 'Me' called Turn Me On and a picture of a light-bulb by Clare Maunsell entitled Bollocks. However there are also some sublimely canny treats, celebrating modern life and its tragic peccadilloes such as Steve Rosenthal's almost obsessive-compulsive A-Z, a 'London A-Z' with all land masses cut out, hung illuminated like a holy text. And the unanimously decided stand-out piece, also by Clare Maunsell called Lament for a Wastrel, a gravestone with the all too familiar mantra 'You have insufficient funds, Thank you for your service' engraved onto it.
As with any show featuring a range of emerging artists who seem to be in the process of discovering a distinctive voice, the mixture of themes and ideas felt a little chaotic. The work, although intriguing, is so varied that stronger pieces are lumped in with mixed or mangled messages. Perhaps a familiar narrative thread or a one man show could tame the swerves of definition. The gallery itself however, seems to have maneuvered itself cosily into its niche as a boutique gallery and even the weaker work drips with hipster sentiment. There are pieces which make you question the value of culture or indeed of the work itself, but SaLon's encouragement of youth, fashion and media as a focus taps into the urgent restlessness of the emerging art scene. While it may be trial and error, the next idea is always just around the corner.
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