the epiphany cast

This thing is made out of waste bits of paint left behind on my palette after painting sessions. I thought they looked cool and started saving them in a bag. In further proof that it never rains but it pours, due to a complicated and rather dull series of events it’s ended up hanging in the Jam Factory, near the railway station. It’s a bit rubbish in the photo, but it looks much better if you see it in person.

The Jam Factory are having an exhibition with no selection panel, catching the overflow from the Oxford Open. I’m there now and they still have lots of wall space - so if any artists are reading this and fancy hanging something up in public for a month or so, you still can.

It’s interesting seeing what pitches up in an exhibition with no entry criteria except that your stuff should fit within a metre cubed. There are paintings there I actually yearn to own and can’t take my eyes off, like Emma Fordham’s lovely rich mysterious collages of photo cutouts and paint. Sebastian Humphreys’ picture assembled entirely from coloured matchsticks laid out in a herringbone pattern is cool too. Then there’s the installation of six iBooks hung together to make a sort of six-pane window showing a static picture of a girl in the shower, with a sound file of running water playing. I ought to like something like this but it leaves me completely cold; it must have taken a lot of expense and effort to say… what? I’m not sure it says anything. But I have the nasty feeling that if I saw it in the Tate Modern I’d cut it a lot more slack.

Then there’s the ones that are too messagey in a stating-the-blindingly-obvious sort of way, like the plastic bottle with “You are looking at a suspended sentence” written on it. Why not just leave it blank and name the artwork “Suspended Sentence”? Gah.

This is probably unfair - at best, if you stretch, all my own painting says is “w00t! Pretty colours! Plus, recycling is good m’kay?” But this is a blog, not a livejournal, and I seem to think bloggers are obliged to be opinionated.

Thanks for the link, Bugpowder!