In a fascinating new exhibition at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, visitors are given little way in beyond vague thematic statements on the collectors’ mission, and the principles on which the Leeds exhibition pieces were chosen to hang together:
“The Lodeveans collecting mission is to bring together young artists, working in different media, who challenge people to reassess the ways they think, with their artwork… The Leeds exhibition will …focus in particular on the obsessive technique and themes of many of the artists included. The often meticulous attention to detail and analytic concepts of these artists is mirrored in the obsessive devotion to contemporary art of the collectors”
So far, so mysterious. But in an exhibition such as this, so it should be. With each work labelled only with title, materials and artist, the visitor is actively encouraged to draw the parallels between the pieces. Not only does this allow the works to speak directly to their viewers without the interruption of a curator’s subjective interpretation: it also draws into focus the skills involved in curatorship, and does so by removing the usual explicit traces.
It’s a fractured show on first glance – classicism rubs shoulders with photo-realism rubs shoulders with abstract sculpture and so on. But on reflection, after a few circumnavigations of the space (it’s small enough for this to be an easy task) everything starts to come together.
Each piece plays on expectations and assumptions in some way or other – so a detailed photograph shows itself to be a pencil drawing on (very close) inspection. A series of old sepia prints depicting a posed female figure in various settings turn out to be the superimposed self-portraits of an artist. A collection of porcelain pieces shaped as crushed Coke cans confuses elements of our visual perception with the familiar, comfortable colours and designs of willow pattern china distorting the iconic shape of the can.
It’s a lovingly compiled essay of an exhibition. Many pieces will stand alone to be appreciated in their own right. The true reward, however, comes with a more active approach from the gallery visitor, who is allowed the privilege of drawing together the disparate strands for themselves, and so stamping their own interpretation on the collection.