WHITE TEETH, GOOD NATURE
Exhibition with Outlier Gallery.
A single shuttered door tucked in next to Val D‘Oro chippy in Trongate leads to a stone spiral staircase which opens up to the exhibition ‘WHITE TEETH, GOOD NATURE’. A newly opened space having previously hosted only one other exhibition, Outlier Gallery is a fantastic, open and bright space with tall windows overlooking London Road featuring Glasgow’s Art Deco architecture.
This group exhibition featuring artists Anna Lawrence, Paige Silverman, Anika Ahuja and Fionn Duffy is a show comprised of sculpture, drawing and writing. The works exhibited were presented through materiality as juxtaposed structures. Their bodies a combination of steel and latex, the hardness and softness of this fluidity met with opposing structures. The clutch between this materiality, influenced by the industrialisation within the work of Paige Silverman, and a vulnerability in the skin-like work ‘ultrasonic dreamscape’ by Anna Lawrence. The exhibition also had a wonderful accompanying text compiled by Anna Koutsafti of Ghost Press.
I couldn’t help but feel caught by the intensity pulsing through the exhibition. Initially being drawn in by work ‘I SEE FOG IN ONE EYE ONLY,’ by artist Paige Silverman. In this piece, Silverman informs us of the rubber end origins being that of a set of crutches. These terrain buffers were attached to steel bars, connoting the exploration of the tension between sickness and health. Between the crutch end and the pillow pinned against the wall created an uncomfortable unease – a felt lack of air as the neck of the pillow is pressed by the steel arm. The taught creases of the skin enforces a need to take a deep breath, to catch your breath, inhalation, exhalation. In this work the pillow becomes limped in its attempt to push back, for me this resonated through the chokehold of systems of support and the destructive cycle of illness and wellness. A comfort in vulnerability in which hinders the identity. Throughout the exhibition this theme of tensions between life and destruction occurs in the link between materials and objects used to convey a suppression of the self.
The organic influence in the work of ‘ultrasonic dreamscape‘ by Anna Lawrence accentuates the bodily presence within the exhibition, similar to that the pillow took form previously. Ghostly impressions in this work leaves a residue of human existence that is delicate, demonstrating a fragility that conflicts the strength of the more structural work in the space but reflects against the polyurethane of ‘dry eyes, deaf ears’ by Anika Ahuja. The latex algae and wool combination in ‘ultrasonic dreamscape’ is highlighted in the space as the light coming in from behind the windows creates a translucent sickly green glow. I feel I’m having an intimate insight into Livor Mortis, as the pooling underneath the decaying skin begins the slow process of decay.
This sense of restriction continues throughout the exhibition as we observe the trapped condensation in ‘you got it, you got it’ by Fionn Duffy. The life in the work, the little sprouts gives, is breathing which contrasts to the lack of, or holding of, air in the previous works. The wet filling of the lungs as if underwater catching the bubble as they escape the sides of the mouth, surrounds the plastic container.
On the other side of the exhibition in, ‘Dr. Netter takes a trip (vol.5)’ by Silverman, an evocative imitation of inanimate deflated lung is hung on the wall.
After all the thoughts on life, breath and suffocation on a precipice of death, the artist Anika Ahuja and their work ‘comfortable seat’ explores commodity and value. The work consists of a cushioned seat with no legs or backing, patched with brown parcel tape, hanging on a white gallery wall with the words carved ‘Value of Purchase Assessed Upon Exit’ . This was the last piece that I viewed during my visit, as I exited from this space I question, are we valued and how are we valued, when it’s time to check out. The seat is a sign of rest to catch a breath, a relief of weary bones, now a piece of art, now it hangs, as domestic commodity. This undervalued object, now staring at us with a new meaning, creating an illusion.
I asked Anika Ahuja about her work:
‘My work for this particular show sits in the spaces of grief, loss, shame, and shattered expectations.
I think collectively, all of the work in the show taps into ‘in between moments.’ Private moments of indulgence, reflection, pain, all those moments that can often feel like a dream, a blur or an illusion. Or just a passing moment invisible to everyone but the one experiencing it. This dialogue stretches across all planes; personal, environmental, and political, as seen throughout the exhibition.
Personally, my work is really interested in the viewer’s perception, as seen with the backwards text in the drawing ‘not anymore‘, the viewer becomes the subject behind the window that is being longed for.
Beyond that I won’t say much more because I truly do believe the viewer is the co-author of the work and all perceptions and readings are valid ones!’
As we turned the space, I jotted notes that came to me.
As exhibition uttered a bodily presence, a dialogue pieced together a reflection of body, sickness and tensions between commodification and identity.
‘Residue and Transparency’.
Body
Breath
A Fragmentation
Of the self
Trapped under skin, in soft, elasticated, chewy, latex.
Rips as scars. Reptilian.
Domesticity.
Diarisic.
A Bedframe – the bed frame
Darkness
Commodification of
Air, Breath, Breathe
Asphyxiation
The condensation, the suffocating, the tension.
The pillow soft – ly struggle, a struggle, taught skin, fragile pressure.
Piercing
Soft Skin, Pillow, Punctured
The Crutches, Crutched, Held by Choke, Held as Support, Held in Bane.
Bane of Existence.
Tension of Vulnerability.
Shedding.
A self.
Written by Eliza Coulson, thank you to Maria Soroniati for coming along with me and helping to edit this piece.
A big thank you to artist Anika Ahuja for inviting us along to write about this exhibition and to all the exhibiting artists and their wonderful work.
Gal bag. 