Collective Actions

STRAYLIGHT CAVERN
Cell Project Space

As we entered the project space I was pleasantly surprised to see that the main gallery space couldn’t be seen- only a white ice cave like entrance. We proceeded through the entrance made of different types of materials-mainly white and transparent plastics, wood and canvas type material. It was really tempting to touch all the different surfaces and try and glimpse through them to reveal different layers of the structure and possibly the gallery space. This large cave like, white structure guided you into two rooms, the first being the biggest and then onto a smaller one, they both held artworks.

These works all had a ‘cyber’ flavour to them. There were two strange colourful heads, one in each room, made of some type of dough/clay that looked quite edible. These were displayed alongside several digital video pieces on TV screens and large polystyrene sculptures. These sculptures fascinated me; they looked like coral and were also very tempting to touch. The video pieces were very basic; the first one reminded me of the old pong game from when I was a kid. The other was a very bright multi coloured repetitive trippy film. I didn’t really enjoy looking at them for very long.

The actual structure was in my opinion the boldest and most original part of the exhibition and held the slightly bizarre collection of works together, however, not that impressive in terms of how well built it was. I have never seen a gallery turned into such an installation. It made me feel quite dizzy and claustrophobic by the end and I felt relived to leave.

All the works had a kind of nostalgic quality to them. It all seemed rather badly made like a school project/kids playhouse which I found simultaneously slightly repulsive yet refreshing and inviting as it didn’t hold any of the stereotypical clinical feelings that some galleries do, there was nobody watching you which let you view the work and be lost in the jagged edged ice cave without reservation.

I like the ambitiousness of the idea of such a show, the coming together of so many artists and the wide range of media used but felt that it was too ramshackle and lacking in quality.

Brianna Bryson-Haynes