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The 'SUCCUBUS, BANSHEE AND MEDUSA'
Curated by Mike Dawson, Comme Ca Art
@ Comme Ca MCR
24 Worsley Street, (Off Ellesmere Street), Manchester, M15
4LD
From: 28.11.03 - 17.01.04
Preview: 28th November, 6pm - 8pm
Opening Times:
Tuesday - Friday: 11.30am - 5:00pm
Sat: 12:00pm - 4:00pm, Late Night Thursday until 7:30pm
All other times by appointment only, Tel. 0161 839 7187.
Starring: Abigail Lane, Jane Griffiths, Olivia Plender,
Adele Myers, Nicola Siddons, Sophia Crilly and Janet Griffiths.
Dark and mischievous, with a B-movie,
Hammer-Horroresque edge, 'Succubus, Banshee and Medusa' is
the first all-female group show at Comme Ca MCR (previously
know as The Comme Ca Art gallery). This eclectic show features
an impressive range of works: pencil drawings, paintings,
photography, video and posters. All the works take a peculiar,
enigmatic twist on the macabre and gothic, the sacred and
the profane.
Abigail Lane: Lane emerged as a member of the Freeze
generation, and, along with Damien Hirst, Gary Hume and Sarah
Lucas, was part of the 1988 exhibition that showcased the
works of Goldsmiths College students. Initially Lane was known
for large-scale inkpads, wallpaper made with body prints,
wax casts of body fragments, and ambiguous installations.
Her early works emphasised the physical markings of the body.
In this exhibition Lane turns inward, giving form to the illusive
and intangible world of the psyche. Coupled with her long-standing
fascination with turn-of-the-century phenomena such as séances,
freak shows, circuses and magic acts, Lane creates a 'funhouse-mirror
reflection' of the life of the mind. Lane presents 'The Figment'
a B-Movie-esque poster exploring the existence of the instinctual
urges that lie deep within us. Bathed in a vivid red light,
the impish boy-figment beckons us, "Hey, do you hear
me... I'm inside you, I'm yours... I'm here, always here in
the dark, I am the dark, your dark... and I want to play."
His role is that of a mischievous but not sinister 'devil
on your shoulder' who taunts and tempts us to join him in
his wicked game.
Jane Griffiths: Griffiths makes use of many different
media: video, audio, paintings and multiples (garments, mugs
and other domestic items). Over the last few years much of
her work has been concerned with daytime television and her
personal fascination and celebration of it. Griffiths' current
artwork takes the gossip and stories of colleagues, friends
and new acquaintances, and transforms the tales into biographical
portraits. For this show she presents a new 'cryptic' triptych:
'Bye Bye old friend', 'When I am with you' and 'What lies
beneath'. The layouts of these works have been influenced
by the designs of 1970s Mexican movie posters. She uses a
preferred paint combination of enamel on gloss. Her style
is instantly recognisable and is reminiscent of woodcuts.
The visual components are sourced from websites. Griffiths
takes low-resolution JPEGs, then reconstructs and deconstructs
the images in Photoshop until her trademark graphic images
are achieved. The final process involves a pencil transfer
technique that is applied to primed gloss boards or box canvas
surfaces.
Olivia Plender: Her practice comprises drawings, posters
and publications. Over the last few years Plender has been
working on a comic book about an imaginary London avant-garde
of the past, and a series of fictional advertising posters
mimicking the appearance of early 20th-century adverts. Stylistically,
much of her work looks as if it comes from an earlier era,
whether that's the 1890s or the 1960s. In part, this is so
Plender can revisit and explore early modernist art and design,
and examine the conditions and narratives that contributed
to modernism: in doing so, she is able to critique the present.
'The Masterpiece Set' is a series of pencil drawings presented
by Plender for this show. Set in London in the early 1960s,
'The Masterpiece' is a comic about an unrecognised artistic
genius trying to negotiate his way towards success in the
stifling atmosphere of bohemian/hip London. Resulting from
research in libraries and archives, the visual appearance
of the comic shifts and changes from frame to frame. Meanwhile,
the story takes many twists and turns as the character finds
himself mixed up in underground life, parties, séances
and psychedelic experiences.
Adele Myers: Her work explores what it means to be
human in our increasingly technological world. The interaction
of the audience with her work plays a crucial role. Often
making use of video and sound, her work entices the viewer
into a profound engagement with the subject matter. According
to Myers, 'desire, expectation, belief and fulfilment are
all elements that pertain to a state of which our contemporary
society craves'. Myers compares the work to the story of Pandora,
whose curiosity unleashed all manner of ills upon the world,
and who needed to be shackled and restrained to protect both
herself and others. In that particular piece of mythology
it was a woman who wreaked enormous havoc, yet, historically,
it has been men who have craved power and control, and it
is men who have been responsible for most of the violent death
and destruction in the world. Myer‚s new work is a video
piece contained within a box. For Myers this alludes to curiosity
and is a 'testimony to environmental chaos, capitalist entropy
and global disillusionment. Open it if you dare!'
Janet Griffiths: Her work features playful, dark-humoured
photographic scenarios that incorporate props, prosthetics
and digital manipulation. All works are created within her
domestic setting (a home-cum-studio-cum-stage). Janet Griffiths‚
latest series of pieces continues the wild imaginings of her
alter ego: the universal housewife who lives in a house with
her kids. Janet Griffiths creates the characters she dreams
of becoming. She makes her own costumes from materials she
finds around her, and uses cheap wigs, body parts and props
in the same way that people make costumes for fancy dress
parties. Janet Griffiths has always had a fascination with
1950s B-movies, horror films and surrealism, and these influences
feed the images she creates. Her human-spider picture 'Haven't
you ever wondered?' uses creature-feature movies as a starting
point, and subverts the fear of spiders – a phobia common
to many – by turning the housewife into a giant spider
lurking in a dirty bathroom. Janet Griffiths‚ housewife
alter ego appears in several incarnations including a huge
bat, a 50-foot woman and a Virgin Mary. Although the universal
housewife is trapped by her domestic environment, she fantasises
herself out of her mundane, ordinary existence.
Nicola Siddons: Siddons presents four works (2 new,
2 old) from her 'Domestic Bliss' series. The images focus
on the tensions between order and chaos, and the structures
we try to apply to our everyday lives in order to maintain
a sense of control and meaning. Siddons explores our desires
for social acceptability and respectability whilst also questioning
our attraction to what lies outside these boundaries in everything
considered deviant or taboo. In this sense the photographs
relate our fascination with the horrific with a need to step
outside the comforts of banality and to experience the potential
found within the unknown.
Sophia Crilly: Crilly presents a series of new and
compelling black-and-white photographic images. These images
are the continuation of a body of work concerned with the
theme of identity formation, female narcissism and metamorphosis
through the viewing of mainstream film. The work references
cinema as a way of analysing patriarchal culture and the construction
of idealised femininities. Crilly questions how a woman viewing
a film is given access to an objectified and fetishised image
of woman on the screen, and works with models to recreate
identificatory fantasies based on their memories of influential
female film characters. Looking at the depictions of highly
sexualised women as a threat to the patriarchal order, and
paying homage to the B-movie, the triptych shown here has
an implied or suggested narrative - the consequences of which
are left up to the viewer to decide.
For further information or images by the exhibitors contact
Comme Ca Art on: Tel: 0161 839 7187
Email: info@commecaart.com
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