design by Rareform Branding | terms & conditions
Ascension - Four London Artists - October 2008
Ascension was a show about transformation and transcendence. It sought to present each of us with a new way of seeing, to subvert preconceptions and challenge our assumptions.
The artists exhibited employed different materials, different influences and different techniques but they were sewn together by a common thread: the desire to make us look at things afresh. Beauty is at its most poignant when it is found in unexpected places. Art is at its most powerful when it forces us to rethink what we thought we knew.
Ben Ashton’s precisely-crafted oil paintings are the visual equivalent of revisionist history. By giving the Old Master traditions a contemporary twist, he challenges each of us to scratch beyond the varnish of their easy familiarity. Each work in the exhibition became a narcissistic performance, with Ashton as the central focus: both artist and subject. ‘For me, Ascension is about the transformation of one thing to another, and that really relates to what I do,’ said Ashton. ‘I’m trying to bring something out that people haven’t seen before.’
Katy Kirbach, also, asked us to look beneath the surface. From a distance her paintings showed rigidly formatted patterns. Up close, they changed their form, each geometric shape breaking down into clumps of paint and thick, three-dimensional brush-strokes. ‘My art is a dialogue between vision and touch,’ she said. ‘I’m really curious to see the dialogue between my work and the space of St Barnabas House. It’s an exciting space in which to install the work.’
The faded Georgian grandeur of St Barnabas House also provided inspiration for Polly Morgan. Morgan’s astonishing sculptural works of taxidermy share a similar transformative goal. By taking animals out of their natural setting and placing them in a foreign context — a magpie on a telephone or a bird in a bell jar — she asked us to think differently about death; to recognize the exquisitiness of the corpse. Morgan said: ‘I like the space of St Barnabas, the way it looks like it has creaky boards and fireplaces, because my work will initially seem to be traditional taxidermy in a traditional setting. But it isn’t and so you will be forced to look twice at it.’
Michael Armitage, too, encouraged the viewer to look more profoundly at what they were seeing through his use of traditional African tribal symbols, myths and legends in a westernized, contemporary context. ‘Immediately, assumptions are made about “African” art’ said Armitage, who encouraged us instead to engage with its sophistication and potency. ‘It’s about overcoming prejudice. There is tension between the two cultures, but there is also cohesion.’
Although the four artists shared a common objective, they arrived at the ultimate climax in very different ways. Bringing these artists together for the first time in this unique space was exciting precisely because it was simultaneously so unexpected. ‘The idea for Ascension came to me after visiting many artists studios and observing them creating their new work,’ explains Simon Oldfield, the show’s curator. ‘It soon became evident to me that there were a number of very talented individuals working in London whose output was based on the universal themes of duality, transformation and beauty.
‘What is especially great about this is their variety, that they are all so different and exploring these themes in wonderfully diverse ways. The talent speaks for itself and this show I feel represents some of the best of what London has to offer today.’
By Elizabeth Day, feature writer for The Observer
