Consumerism and desire are the subjects of Kosovar artist Sislej Xhafa’s first London show. The main piece, ‘Merry-Go-Round’, consists of various objects – including a fridge freezer, a cigarette and a radio – suspended by wires from a rusting iron frame in the shape of a football goal mouth. The (rather literal, it has to be said) idea is that these consumer objects have historically been promoted as goals to which everyone should aspire.
Other works also tend towards bluntness. A black tombstone has a telephone attached to signify, we’re told, the impossible desire to communicate with the dead. A heart-shaped spring mattress, old and decrepit, is a comment on how sexuality withers over time. The humour is so immediate that you process the works instantly. The danger., however, is that you could easily move on without a second thought. Which is frustrating because, quite clearly, there’s a subtler, more ambiguous side to Xhafa’s art. A small painting ‘Woman With Red Skirt’ is actually done in shades of grungy, scrubby grey. And, as for some of those objects on the goalposts – what on earth is a stuffed cat doing there among all the mass-produced goods? Strangest of all is a wooden chair, mounted high on the wall and coated in grey paint, with long strands of human hair hanging from its seat. It feels oddly discomfiting – at once articulate yet impossible to pin down. If only Xhafa had included more work like this instead of opting for grander, glibber statements. But perhaps that’s down to the pressure of a first London show…
Gabriel Coxhead