Slump City at SPACE

Slump City at SPACE

08 June, 2009
by: Tom Jeffreys

2012. It's pretty obvious the artists of East London are not exactly thrilled by the arrival of what they see as a bloated corporate monster imposed by anonymous bureaucrats more concerned with pie-charts than people.

At the forefront of the opposition is contemporary artist and activist Laura Oldfield Ford. From her participation in anti-Olympics collective 'We Are Bad' and her self-produced punk/psychogeography 'zine Savage Messiah, Oldfield Ford's opposition to the current 'development' is palpable. There is an anger and a spite in some of her work which makes you wonder what Lord Coe might make of it were it to turn up in his neatly arranged in-tray.

I saw her solo show at Hales Gallery back in 2009 and was excited to hear of her participation in this new show, Slump City, at SPACE on Mare Street.  On display are works by three local artists – Oldfield Ford, Tessa Farmer and Karen Russo – and although their approaches are quite different, there are definite areas of overlap that this exhibition does well to pull out.

Karen Russo presents a single video work – 2005's Economy of Excess – that consists of an apparently endless journey through an urban sewer system. Shot using the tiny robot cameras that usually help to locate blockages, this is a hauntingly claustrophobic journey through one of the many unpleasant infrastructures that most city dwellers would rather just forget about.

Very different in some ways is the work of Tess Farmer. Farmer presents two elaborate dioramas constructed out of dead animals – beetles, butterflies, rats and other assorted little creatures. Inspired by her 2007 residency at the Natural History Museum, these works are truly bizarre. Simultaneously natural and unnatural, the effect is at once unsettling and enthralling. Around the Frankenstein carcasses tiny fairies flit and fly – these little works are founded upon death and yet they teem with life. The excruciating detail should be repellent but is somehow beautiful and engrossing.


Tessa Farmer, 'The Resurrection of the Rat' (2008)

Detail is an integral element of Oldfield Ford's exquisitely observed drawings. On show here is a series of works from the exhibition earlier this year at Hales. But in addition is a new series specially produced for Slump City. The drawings develop Oldfield Ford's exploration of the communities and landscapes of East London: litter-filled canals and grim high-rise blocks jut up against blandly beautiful day-time celebrities; a portrait of radical artist Robin Bale stands in stark contrast to the mock-Tudor McDonalds complete with hamburger stepping stones. Over these detailed drawings harsh red paint is spattered. Slogans scream out:  'Occupy the Yuppie Dromes' or 'Attack Boring Yuppie Culture'

Talking to the artist briefly it emerges that these new drawings took many months to produce and, interestingly, four days to mount in the gallery. It is this kind of dedication and attention to detail that makes Oldfield Ford's observational work the more powerful. And, in fact, her work is also more equivocal than it may at first appear. It is not simply an 'East is good, progress is bad' kind of politics here. There is an understanding of the complexities involved, a recognition of the need, perhaps, for 'development' in some form. But change must be sensitive and gradual, prioritising the specific needs of local communities.  

This is a great exhibition: Oldfield Ford and Farmer's works play nicely off against each other in their differing evocations of life amid decay, degradation and death. At the same time, these oppositions are underpinned by Russo's evocative video, the sounds of which echo around the gallery, infiltrating every viewing experience. Visually and politically pointed – the best show I've seen in ages.

Slump City is at SPACE until 26th June 2009.

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Tom Jeffreys