On Saturday I went to Transition Gallery to see the new show ‘Machismo’ curated by one of the participating artists Paul Murphy. ‘Machismo’ is an investigation into bravery or masculinity and the like and comprises work by Paul Clark, Ann Course, Rebecca Knapp, Paul Murphy and James Payne.
From the press release:- “Machismo conjures up images of strength, silence,
stoicism and self-reliance, the lone man (must it always be a man?) on a constant quest to master all that is around them. Central to the idea of machismo is the conceit of what is right, what is proper: ‘This is not how a man behaves’, and what is brought into question is the virility of the hero character”.
Paul Murphy paints on glamour girl playing cards with enamel paints he inherited when he moved into his current studio space in Martello Street. The playing cards are flooded with paint and only the girls’ limbs are on show, buried in the cloying enamel.
The cards are hung on the wall in groups and float in front of the wall. One miniature triptych (I couldn’t see it as anything but) has the best Francis Bacon orange outside of “Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion”. Another grouping is sprayed in white enamel mist. You can just make out the models. They are like tiny suffocations.
There’s something about the enamel; it has a shine and a harshness. I’m not sure I would have found these so affecting if they were reworked in a porous watery paint. The cards are being sold separately, which I think is a shame, as they’ll no doubt go like hot cakes and the ‘groups’ in which they are hung (which enable the images to feed off each other) will be split forever.
The groupings are flanked by re-worked photographic prints. I bought the skull one below. It reminded me of one of Genesis P-Orridge’s emblems and Psychic TV's Temple of Psychic Youth (which house was it in Beck Road???!!!).
Paul’s ideas for ‘Machismo’ originated out of an earlier project about bullfighting, and one of the fighter prints is on show. "I liked the mix of a very visceral violence under a hot sun staged in pantomime outfits that parodied our ideas of masculinity".
I also enjoyed James Payne's three somber drawings of places spot-lit in the middle of blackness. His centerpiece, and for me very much the centerpiece of the show, is a desolate boxing ring. I thought this was one of the most powerful images in the room.
The drawings are so heavily carbonated that from three steps away they look
like smooth slate-like prints, it’s only up close can you see that the darkness the images hang in is a densely penciled surround. They are also very smartly framed and I liked the tricks the picture glass plays. The photograph below is of me attempting to photograph the boxing ring piece, which was a bit like trying to take a picture of a mirror but escape your reflection.
I also enjoyed Rebecca Knapp's paintings of "stereotypically boyish subject matter" and "displays of hypermasculinity". I enjoyed the one of the youths pissing on their victim... and although a central part of the image there's so much sketchy landscape and washes of watery oil paint that I didn't see immediately what was happening. In another piece shadowy figures hang outside a petrol station under looming skies. It’s a painting of terror and I shuddered at the wind and rain and at the thought of drug-fucked youths in county towns out for lashings of the old ultraviolence on a rainy afternoon.
There's a great one in Garageland (a new journal published by Transition as a valuable adjunct to the shows) showing baseball-capped hoodies brandishing knives, and I wanted more of the violence of young boys. I wanted to be nearer to them, and pushed up against walls by them. Rebecca however wisely keeps her distance and because of this the pictures are filled with more movement and room. There is space to wander around in them.
Anyway, go and have a look. It’s on until 12th Feb.
http://www.transitiongallery.co.uk/htmlpages/machismo/machismo.html
http://www.transitiongallery.co.uk/htmlpages/editions/Garageland_intro.html
