London is the second stop for this group show which, having premiered in Minneapolis, will travel to New York later in the year. Ten artists from each city are involved, the curators’ intention being for them to explore ideas of interconnectedness and respond to each other’s work as the exhibition progresses. Either by accident or design, a dose of cross-pollination seems already to have occurred. Governing much of the work is a grunge-pop aesthetic – the international language of cool disaffection – illustrated by Andy Hsu's installation of pound shop treasure. Quasi-diagrammatic doodling is witnessed in wallpieces by Liz Miller and Diann Bauer, and in Ryan Chamberlain’s small paintings, proving the global influence of Julie Mehretu, Beatriz Milhazes and Franz Ackermann.
Singing a tuneless, stentorian version of Whitney Houston’s ‘I Have Nothing’, Sarah Baker from London is outwitted by New Yorker Emily Lutzker performing ‘My Heroes, The Clash’, part of her ‘Un-Karaoke’ project in which she ‘becomes’ a musical icon from each city. The most lasting impression comes from ‘Ghost retransplantation’ by Diana Shpungin, also from New York. Accompanied by a theremin soundtrack, a flickering video projection shows the façade of an old English pub said to be haunted by two of Jack the Ripper’s victims. The film wasn’t made in the East End, however, but in the States;in 1996 the building was shipped to the Florida and Shpungin has used this opportunity to repatriate, and hopefully placate, the unhappy spirits.
