INTERFACE
Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
REVIEW
Pressing Flesh
Museum of Classical Archaeology, University of Cambridge 3 November – 19 December
Reviewed by: Wil Bolton
Three contemporary artists have been chosen to exhibit their works within the museum's collection of plaster casts of classical sculptures.
The majority of the works shown have been created specifically with this site in mind and are designed to form complex relations with both the museum space and the objects contained within it. Denise de Cordova's In Shade, a small and somewhat enchanting woodland scene crafted in painted pulp and plaster, echoes the material of the classical casts and has been hidden in the shade of a towering centaur. In another piece, Dress of Kisses, a black bronze doll-like figure with a bell-shaped dress decorated with lips is concealed amongst a group of classical bronze heads.
Brian McCann provides a range of works in various media. His sculptural pieces reference the classical works in the museum with their use of copper, bronze and ceramics and their encasement in vitrines. McCann also contributes two video works – originally shown as projections: Waiting explores notions of time, trace and loss, whilst Rubbing looks at notions of ritual, mythology, spectacle and the gaze of the tourist. His hazy canvases depict lone nude figures – women dancing like Pollock, paintbrush to the ground, and men in physical disagreements with chairs. Highly painterly, they also allude to sculpture, photography and film.
Benedict Carpenter's Flocked Objects, with their exquisite plush surfaces and flowing organic forms are like three-dimensional Rorschach inkblots. They provoke thoughts on meaning and language and their ambiguous bodily references are here emphasised by their context amidst the figurative plaster casts.
These stimulating juxtapositions of ancient and modern art create a reciprocal loop, a conversation between the classical and the contemporary. Each feeds on the other, opening up dialogues and revealing relationships.
Writer detail:
WIL BOLTON
is a writer.
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