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Boule to Braid

This event has now finished Until Aug 15 2009 Lisson Gallery, 29, 52-54 Bell St, London, NW1 5DA Full details & map

Art:Galleries: Soho to Hampstead

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Paul McCarthy, 'Hot Dog', 1974 Paul McCarthy, 'Hot Dog', 1974

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Posted: Wed Jul 29 2009

'Boule to Braid' sounds rather like an all-over waxing process favoured by buff, flaxen-haired Vikings; and indeed it does describe a process of collation that is almost as personal. Richard Wentworth, art's patron saint of the everyday, has selected almost 100 works - from Lisson Gallery director Nicholas Logsdail's own collection, the gallery's own stable of artists and beyond - that effectively accrue into an encyclopedia of Wentworthian terms.

This lexicon includes instances of fantastical bodged contingency, such as Tom Sachs's 'Supreme Allied Commander Moon Rock Box' (2008-9), which furnishes the lunar explorer with distinctly lo-fi tools, alongside moments of iconic material ingenuity, such as Scott Burton's bench made from a single piece of Corten steel. There are things masquerading as other things - Hussein Chalayan's A-line dress made from an airmail envelope, for instance - and materials behaving very much as themselves, as in Hans Haacke's 'Condensation Box' (1963-5). Silliness abounds, as exemplified by Terrence Bond's photographic diptych 'Mum in Kitchen' (1981), where Mum appears to pull the tablecloth from under the dinner service, magically turning plates and wine glasses upside down. But this is abutted by the sombre minimalist instances of Donald Judd and the earnest stillness of Lee Ufan's stones, which, in this rambunctious setting, seem to be proffering one another a chaste kiss.

By so brazenly reflecting its curator's proclivities, 'Boule to Braid' may tread on the toes of a few delicate works, but as summer shows go, it certainly makes for a bracing gallop.

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Lisson Gallery, 29, 52-54 Bell St, London NW1 5DA

Lisson Gallery

One of London's pioneering contemporary galleries, Lisson was set up in 1967 by art dealer Nicholas Logsdail. The gallery's stated aim across the...

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Transport Edgware Road 

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020 7724 2739

http://www.lissongallery.com

10am-6pm Mon-Fri, 11am-5pm Sat

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