Pretty Vacant at Transition Gallery

Pretty Vacant at Transition Gallery

26 August, 2008
by: Katuschka

Sometimes modern life is so terribly dull, isn't it? Thank goodness we have artists to remind us of this fact, and thank goodness there's a Sex Pistols song to anchor their ideas with some collective cultural relevance. Pretty Vacant at Transition Gallery is a nihilistic look at the surface of art, an airy-fairy drift through half-baked ideas and vague forms. The art is intentionally throwaway and low-fi. Influenced by the obsessive detail found in natural forms – such as bee wings, tadpoles and eggs – and created without any apparent purpose, these works celebrate 'an inexplicable thrill in the mundane'.

The slightly spurious mission statement translates largely into swamp-things assembled from, among other things, driftwood shelves with strategically placed toy sheep and Star Wars figures (either that or someone was bored and has a severe termite problem). Transition Gallery is no aesthetic slouch and has an extensive roster of emerging artists, so why choose a theme which meanders down dead ends and asks the energy of a faint yawn from their artists?

Viewed with the idea in mind that the pieces are 'beautifully banal' and quite pointless, they invite speculation and criticism without irony and potentially lay open the framework of 'bad art' to be seen in all its glory. The work is unashamedly trite and meaningless because it has been excused beforehand: it's kind of the artistic equivalent of wearing a lampshade on your head because by now everyone at the party knows you're wasted. Under these circumstances, it's hard to say whether or not the art is 'good' or 'bad', but each piece is still significantly the artist's creation and by default has its own stamp; the interpretations of the brief are all-important and the freedom of choice of subject produces a highly intriguing and random catalogue of child-like oddities.

Rachel Potts' ceramic paintings are the most memorable pieces. Her glossy canvasses are garish and ghostly with blocks of My Little Pony-style, ice-cream colours whilst occasional blobs of dark paint take you through the frame and allow a glimpse into a more sombre world. Images appear like jazzy negatives of toy boxes, with images of woodland castles and airplanes: a bit like those magic eye prints as your eyes adjust to the surreal colour scheme and seek out meaning in the floating forms. Potts appears to have channelled the spirit of a child who finishes a sprawling mess of colour, thinks for a few seconds then calls it a fire truck. But there's a sense of playful naivety here as opposed to immaturity.

Similarly, Nina Ogden creates surreal characters from obsessive-compulsive details. There's a swampy creature rising from the primordial soup and a cowboy riding a balloon dog (Rodeo Poodle). The latter is a fairly blatant homage to Jeff Koons but the lack of originality is redeemed by the obvious effort in its creation. Keara Stewart, the third in the triumvirate of artists at the show, uses small detailed drawings of houses to unlock the stories left behind.

Pretty Vacant does appear to have its tongue firmly in cheek, however the 'what's the point?' factor leaves eager aficionados oscillating wildly between wary praise and mocking. They may as well have written 'This statement is a lie' on the press release and watched the room fill with exploding heads. But at least this is an honest and experimental exhibition, which ultimately does what it says on the tin. So if you do need a visual reminder of the mundanity of the everyday, Transition is a good place to go and wallow.

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Katuschka