INTERFACE
Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
REVIEW
Robert Orchardson: News from Nowhere
The Changing Room, Stirling 8 June – 27 July
Reviewed by: Kirsty Walker
When the atom bomb was being tested in Nevada, Americans were so naively delighted by it that for a time mushroom cloud hairdos were all the rage. I was reminded of this when I visited Robert Orchardson's first solo exhibition, 'News from Nowhere'. As Orchardson says, he is interested in "looking back to how we looked forward". His work is built on the shifting sands of man's relationship to technology and the resulting anxieties, hopes and fears of an increasingly machine-driven future. William Morris warns against such a world in News From Nowhere (1890) and writes instead of a utopia where people have reverted to life without machines.
Orchardson's literary and movie references continue beyond the show's title. The work We, a kissing couple on a bulbous ball, is inspired by Russian writer, Yevgeny Zamyatin's bleak, Orwellian depiction of the future. The pair's embrace speaks more of resuscitation than passion. Ghost in the machine, the piece which most shows off Orchardson's talents as a highly accomplished painter, alludes to 2001: A Space Odyssey. The title piece, News from nowhere, a massive curved picture in paint and plywood, shows a crowd looking out to something we, the audience, cannot see – Close Encounters perhaps? Neatly applied paint also juxtaposes effectively with plywood in the only untitled work in the group. This large sculptural piece has an architectural or furniture quality to it, typifying Orchardson's interest in 1960s fashion and design. Suddenly everything has changed, the other free-standing work likewise has plentiful 1960s curves, but interestingly Orchardson claims he was initially unaware when making it that it also looks like a mushroom cloud.
The future looks sixties-psychedelic bright for this young artist. Perhaps the show will give him the confidence to introduce a more contemporary slant to the fertile ground in which he works.
Writer detail:
KIRSTY WALKER
is an art writer, interpretive consultant and travel journalist based in Edinburgh.
Venue detail:
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