Two/Four Considerations

ART, DESIGN AND CULTURAL REPORTAGE: NEW YORK — LONDON

Art Bin + Hans Stofer

by Melissa Gamwell

26 March 2010

Recently I visited Michael Landy’s Art Bin at South London Gallery, followed in the evening by the new exhibition at Gallery S O, an installation by Hans Stofer. The two shows were both examining objects and process; Landy, very specifically in the failures of making them and Stofer capitalizing on moments of flux in making, embracing the ability of knowing when to stop with a series of still lives and installations.

In the morning at the Art Bin-I literally threw one of my Biography Vases into the giant steel frame/plexi box. It was the second to last day and by that time the bin boasted a huge pile of creative wreckage, including some notable failures from artists such as Damien Hirst and Gillian Wearing. I had the idea that if I could get my vase to perhaps shatter on top of one of the more famous failures it could be worth the material cost. NOT THE POINT and didnt happen anyway.

South London Gallery

My experience in throwing porcelain. hahaha.

Landy’s initiative for the project was to question the ownership, implications of destruction, value and preciousness. Interestingly, while so many artists dropped their work into what the artist called a “monument of creative failure” there was still image protection on the bin, not because of Mr. Landy but because every artist had not signed the release for the work to be photographed. This made it quite clear that the totality did not truly consider their work as a subject of creative failure, but rather a means of publicity- letting go is absolute release no!? So unfortunately the only pictures i could take were the exterior of the gallery (which is good for those who dont know what it looks like) and a picture that the gallery attendant took of me throwing it in.

Later I headed to Gallery S O, for the opening of a show by Hans Stofer, who is head of the GSM&J department at the RCA. The exhibition showcased collections of household objects alongside his metalwork and jewelry. In these still lives he examines both the chaotic and organizational beauty that exists within a collection. There were readymades that had been slightly altered, side by side with more conceptual metalwork and jewelry, the incorporation showed a heeded consideration to what goes on beyond a creative endeavor, acknowledging studio surroundings to be as much a piece of work as the work itself.

A wall sported glasses hung by oversized man-head nails. By the door three boxes with protective glass covers, housed collections of tableware covered in foil, and spun across the door was a wedding band held captive by a metal spiderweb. Metalwork & jewelry is a genre of the arts which like many others, is best viewed when the titular expectation is forgotten- and is one that can be appropriated to any scape, in this case of the Gallery S O, fielding itself as a whimsical studio.