INTERFACE
Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
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Pedro Cabrita Reis, ‘A place like that (foreground), Cabinet d'amateur #2 (background)’, 2001.
Photo: Colin Davison.
REVIEW
Pedro Cabrita Reis: A Place Like That
Baltic, The Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead
26 October – 26 January
Reviewed by: Gillian Nicol
This exhibition is the first to take full advantage of Baltic's flexibility not just for showing but for making art.
The title work, A place like that is a compact three-storey structure of steel, wood, aluminium and glass supported by six sturdy concrete legs. Its shape and ethos of modular living is not dissimilar to the flats in construction on either side of the Tyne on which Baltic is sited, but also carries strong associations with high-density housing across Europe. The use of raw building materials allows the work to radiate a sense of human expectation for future possibilities. In contrast to A place like that's vertical ascendancy, The ground, forms a broad, low-level platform. Laying horizontally, doors open to varying degrees, it emits a cool glow of fluorescent tube light offering some sort of invitation to another side – future possibilities of a different kind.
The works' construction in situ took a team of artists/technicians – a practical contribution acknowledged by video documentation of the entire process, shown on a monitor prior to entering the space.
Alongside these new works are re-presentations of two previous works: Cabinet d'amateur #2, 2001 and Northern stairs, 2001. The former is a series of metal-framed windows, with coloured paint applied to alternating sides of the glass. Inspired by the display of painting collections over the centuries, it provides a bright backdrop and foil to the other works' natural tones. It also poses questions about the practicalities of collecting work like the large-scale commissions described here. Northern stairs – an industrial staircase jutting out halfway up the wall – could be seen as a quirky symbol of the region's attempts to climb culturally.
With this exhibition, the reality of director Sune Nordgren's oft quoted "Baltic will be a factory..." sinks in, as the process involved in creating the specially commissioned works is considered.
Writer detail:
GILLIAN NICOL
is an artist and [a-n] Magazine coordinator.
Venue detail:
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