Martin Westwood : Silt Inter Lace 11th April 2008 - 10th May 2008
The approach W1 74 Mortimer Street London W1W 7RZ
Helene Appel : Assistant 18th April 2008 - 18th May 2008
The approach E2 47 Approach Road London E2 9LY
The Approach is pleased to announce an exhibition of new works by Martin Westwood.
A large sculpture consisting of multiple parts made from die-cut lithographs, free newspapers and shredded office stationary is distributed in clusters across the gallery space. Lithographic images of office workers heads appear isolated and caught in the material pulp of these components. The cylinders also resemble an extruded form, and are chopped at either end giving each component a fragmentary reference to a larger production process. The work is situated uncertainly in terms of its manufacture, appearing inconclusively between the result of an industrial and a handmade procedure. Also resembling logs forming the beginnings of a fire-stack, the piece reflects ideas of fuel, waste and latent stored potential. The scale of the work is beyond a small functional fire for cooking food for example, and is closer in scale to public display, implying notions of burning and expenditure that is non-utilitarian, symbolic and wasteful.
Westwood�s �Extrusion� drawings are created by the graduated build-up of geometric contours made in biro. These lines are occasionally interrupted by failing or overflowing ink �mistakes�� signs of the wasteful disruption of the biro�s own process. Their progression and the occasional use of graph paper are reminiscent of collected statistical demographic information. The isolated figures that appear in the drawings reflect the sterile, abstract and alienated quality of information collected in this way. Objects that evoke nature in a dislodged and confused state also interrupt their geometry. They reflect superstitions (rabbit paws, charm bracelets), conditioned gender displays (false fingernails, shoulder pads, shaving-scabs) and values of �use� and �exchange� (oyster shells and pearl cufflinks).
Westwood often sources imagery from slick corporate brochures depicting idealized executives from the 1980s, combining them with references to nature. In these combinations, the collisions between personal freedom and nature with ordered, industrious human intentions and societal structure are emphasised and played out in the possibilities of their cross-readings.
Martin Westwood lives and works in London. Recent solo shows include The Approach (2007); �Art Statements�, Art 37 Basel (2006); �Art Now�, Tate Britain (2005); �Angelus Novus�, Collective Gallery Edinburgh (2004) and �Hard Pressed Flowers�, The Approach (2003). Recent group shows include �CUT�, The Approach (2005); �Reflections�, Artuaca Kunsterfgoed, Belgium (2004); �Concert in the Egg�, The Ship, London (2004) and �Dirty Pictures�, The Approach (2003).
Helene Appel Assistant Preview: 17th April 2008 Exhibition Dates: 18th April � 18th May
The Approach E2 is pleased to present the first solo show in London by Helene Appel.
Helene Appel�s paintings explore the line between gesture and form. Natural and casual representations are made to relate to the processes of abstract painting. The representation of low value objects stands in for different painterly actions, and each tests its� competence to replace or dominate the other. Within the paintings in the show there are different actions referenced; the abstract mark, the act of writing, as well as the more casual gestures of placing twigs and discarded tape or the sweeping of debris on the floor. Helene Appel brings abstract painting into an unexpected proximity with the domestic realm, there allowing it to work subtle destruction.
The precise beauty with which the objects depicted in Appel�s paintings are rendered is in some contrast with the ephemeral and everyday nature of the objects themselves. Still whole in themselves, otherwise apart from a wider pictorial narrative, abstracted objects are held by faint shadows only slightly off the surface of Appel's often un-primed canvases. The transient discarded nature of what is depicted lingers like a faint after-image of an ever-interchangeable multitude around the unique and slowly worked representations. Similarly, the faint after-image of abstraction, and a kind of informal casualness, lingers around the flat distribution of these depictions and other painted marks and stains, outshone by the strict formal complexity of Appel's compositions.
The title of the show �Assistant� references a key ambiguous transaction in Appel�s work. It is not clear who is assisting who � the object, the painting, the viewer. Objects that people usually handle but don�t look at are activated by their being studied and presented here. In �the Waitress� a domestic plate acts like an eye staring back at the viewer, and the canvas itself doubles as a tray for the plate. �Cleaner� takes the form of a rag that is used for mopping the floor, with the holes in the canvas acting as worn away spots. In the moment where Appel chooses what stays on the canvas and what is removed she invests value into the object she depicts and lets the object interpret and subvert the abstract convention. The crumple of the brown tape disrupts the depiction of the abstract line and reflects its own materiality. �Tender leaf salad� depicts carefully laid out lettuce leaves that appear like the might be spelling out words. Formally arranged at the top of the raw canvas, they capitalize on the economy of what is represented and what is read by the viewer. There is no text encrypted and it is the form of the leaves that end up displaying a visual language of their own.
Helene Appel was born in Karlsruhe (1976). She studied in Hamburg before moving to London and graduating from The Royal College of Art in 2006. Recent solo shows: Anna-Catharina Gebbers | Bibliothekswohnung, Berlin (2007), Gallery Serdtse, Moscow (2006). Recent group shows: The Teardrop Explodes, Stadtgalerie, Schwaz, Austria (2007), Friedrich, curated by Bruce Haines, doggerfisher, Edinburgh (2006), the air line, The Reliance, London.
