superabundant: a celebration of pattern

the exhibition features work by nine artists who make use of pattern and decoration in very different ways, some adopting a systemsapproach to pattern whilst others are more fluid and organic. jim drain, lesley halliwell, paul moss, jacob dahlgren, henna nadeem, jacqueline poncelet, wim delvoye, daniel sturgis, richard woods, many of the artists have created new and sometimes site specific work especially for the turner contemporary project space. it will be held at turner contemporary project space / droit house, margaret, kent, until 22 march 2009.

‘heaven is a place on earth’, bathroomscales and aluminium, 2006, is featured in the show.

jacob dahlgren’s interactive installation comprised a pathway of 450 of ikea scales

jacob dahlgren installing ‘from art to life to art’ at turner contemporary project space, 2009

lesley halliwell resurrects 70s children’s favorite the spirograph. the toy allows her to create dynamic monochromatic ink drawings within a fixed period of time.

her graceful drawings are the result of endurance feats with rigid masochistic parameters; dazzling ripostes to senseless home work given by a lascivious art teacher. the critical mass of the colour field and time taken to complete a drawing is dictated by the amount of ink in her biro, while form is predominately the outcome of whatever spirograph she uses. superficially, the drawings are much in the spirit of self-perpetuating postmodern process painting, yet they lack the slickness normally associated with such work.

on show is a new, enormous, rainbow-hued picture entitled ‘fanatic’ (4500 minutes).

richard woods uses traditional woodblock printmaking techniques to make graphic imitations of building materials and textures.

woods has made two ambitious new site specific works for the exhibition: re-brand transforms the exterior of the project space from a faded town centre premises on margate high street into an explosively colourful facade while inside, flat stack sculpture creates a dizzying illusion of 3-dimensional depth on the exhibition space floor.

wim delvoye’s ‘marble floor’ was first displayed in 1999

it is actually made of sliced meat, cosmati in salami. all art, it says, is only ever consumable, even the most ancient and sacred.