- Time Out London
- The Big Smoke
- Film
- Music
- Classical & Opera
- Art
- Theatre
- Comedy
- Dance
- Books & Poetry
- Clubs
- Alternative Nightlife
- Gay & Lesbian
- Sport & Fitness
- Shopping
- Tickets
- Competitions
- Dating
- Careers
- Property
- Flatshares & Flats
- Time Out Shop
Give us your feedback
RSS feeds

Art

American Express Platinum Cashback Credit Card

Search what's on

Advanced

Jason Dodge
Until Aug 23
- Recommended
This event has finished
Gallery one one one, 111 Great Titchfield St, W1W 6RY
Rating:
By Ossian Ward

Posted: Mon Jun 30
Five different professionals have cut a pocket from their trousers, in order of altitude: ‘Pilot, Window washer, Acrobat, Ballet dancer, Judge’. The first of US artist Jason Dodge’s works, in a see-through case, is just that: a clutch of dainty fabric pockets sitting on top of one another. I take issue with his ordering. Surely judges (in this country at least) sit higher up on their platforms than most ballet dancers ever reach in their jumps or lifts? Or maybe I should be counting the stage they leap about on (the dancers, not the judges)? No matter, I’ve entered into Dodge’s cerebral game, in which imagination is nine-tenths of the work; the narrative description drives the mind’s eye to distraction, and the object is almost the last thing you see.

Take ‘Rubies inside of an Owl’. The notion of a bird stuffed with precious jewels conjures fairytales of greedy kings or thrifty gamekeepers, but the revelation is how dead it looks. Most embalmed creatures seem preserved alive, but the taxidermist leaves no doubt as to this bird’s state (and to paraphrase Monty Python’s Dead Parrot sketch’) – ’e’s expired, bereft of life, off the twig, an ex-owl.

It’s a shame that there’s a brass-band piece here because Cornelia Parker’s use of instruments as relics is definitively iconic and only foregrounds Dodge’s unoriginality next to other transformative artists like Duchamp, Beuys or Manzoni. However, he’s allowed to reach into art history, just as he reaches into the ancient past for his tube filled with poison hemlock (used to kill Socrates) and into musical alliteration for his tuning fork conducting electricity to a lightbulb. Part of me wants to touch the metal fork to see if I’ll get a shock, but I don’t. At least someone is Dodge by name but not by nature.

Add your comment to this listing

- Bookmark
- |
- Send to a friend

2 comments

Posted by Matthew on 26 Jun 2008 12:36
I came across Tereza Buskova a couple of years ago and have been a fan of her work ever since. I have one of her prints in my living room.
Rituals is a small show consisting of a video, four prints and a construction. The prints look rather like stills from the video which makes the show feel like one piece of work that happens to consist of six parts.
The subject matter and style of the work is familiar territory for Tereza but I think that Rituals is a more satisfying work. The two things that really really like are the use of colour and the representation of depth through the use of shadows.
The overall effect is just luscious. Rituals is on until 23 August and I will be going again.

Report this comment as inappropriate
Posted by Joke Hello on 12 Jun 2008 14:26
This week I enjoyed the 'Time Out Burgeoning Fitzrovia Art Scene' 8 gallery tour in 1 day............
sore were my feet.... the diversity of both form & content provided opportunity to arouse an eclectic mixture of responses
beyond the sheer intimidating design of some of these fortresses of high art.... there were moments when I didn't question why I wasn't staying home or furthering high minded social change.....
The best case for resisting apathy towards the arts was found at gallery one one one.
This exhibtion of 2 artists provided the most stimulating experience. The gentler upstairs works of Dodge provided a soothing mixture of romance & room to both rouse memories and conjure up new questions. This juxtaposed very well with the carnivalisitc display's of Buskova that seemed to load more heavilly in the realms of perception. There was thus balance that provided my little grey cellls with rich stimulation from enough angles........... which is far from always the case.

Report this comment as inappropriate

Details
Gallery one one one, 111 Great Titchfield St, W1W 6RY
, UK

Geo: 51.520599, -0.141745
020 7637 0868
Category: Soho to Hampstead
Times: Tue-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat 11am-4pm
Tube: Great Portland Street