Page 43 - Studio International - November 1974

closely to the normal concept of available for the actual mounting of another; the lines were straight; and Australian wilderness. The symbols
chairs, ottomans and the like, than the each series of three exhibitions will be hence a maze was recognisable if one were nearly recognizable — a log, a
title of the exhibition implied. Their about £160. had first read the label. None the less stone and a cross made of two animal
genesis is, in fact, in the region of art At a time when Jasia Reichardt the coldness and brevity of the piece teeth (?). The photographs, which
rather than of design; they stemmed spends £60 on catalogues for each left one uncertain about whether were placed at 450 angles to one
originally from painting, and van den exhibition — the Trustees once Tremlett wished to communicate his another, showed desolate landscapes
Broecke sees them still as sculpture — asked Bryan Robertson not to exceed distant experience and for what (both flooded and dry), not obviously
though the affinities are with De £700 on the same item — the scope reason he had brought it to a London related to the function of the objects
Stijl rather than with any more for any further economies is audience. in the bottom half. The quality of
lusciously organic idiom. Conscious of obviously limited. To run the gallery In this exhibition there were light and colour of the photographs
social and psychological functions, he as the international institution which drawings close in style to the 81 resembled the average result of
sees seating as an intermediary it once was, would cost about £70,000 Postcard Drawings Tremlett showed in commercial colour processing. Again
between body and space. Hence a year. To run it efficiently as at Baden-Baden and Paris in 1973. In the Tremlett worked both towards and
Super Ottoman I. for instance, present about £50,000 a year. The earlier work each English and Welsh away from a logical development of
explores and correlates the relationship only alternative is that it becomes county was represented by a fully his subject. His messages were cryptic
between various postures as a an Arts Laboratory or Community labelled sketch and nearly every and perplexing. For the time being he
graduation from the upright to the Workshop. That may well be how the sketch contained a visual clue which seemed disinclined to reveal his
lounging position, with each unit cookie of contemporary culture is helped identify the county, thus thought process to the uninitiated
reflecting the gradient by progressive crumbling. But it would be a pity if Lincolnshire was flat and Greater viewer.
increase of its width. The approach the London art scene were to be so London had Big Ben. In the current Catherine Lampert
therefore is basically a 'Systems' one, diminished. series of Australian sites place names
the aesthetic significance emerging Bernard Denvir were also stressed (exotic words like Nice Style at Garage, London,
almost by accident. Bimbijy and Yalgoo). The free-hand 8 October — 2 November
But whatever the logistics of part of the drawings was subdued The reports of the demise of Modern
design, art galleries have similar David Tremlett at Nigel Greenwood inc., because of the blandness of the felt- English Pose, which have been
problems, and the Whitechapel has London, 17 September — 12 October tip line and the lack of a clear circulating recently wherever
always been especially vulnerable in With each successive exhibition distinction between seascape and knowledgeable people gather together
this respect. Exhibiting works of art David Tremlett publicly exposes landscape. The most deliberate to ignore artworks, were put firmly in
requires things other than works of another chapter in his life as a feature was the uniform placement of their place by the new pose
art. It demands toilet paper and wandering artist. The atmosphere the sketches within neatly-made performance at Garage Art: 'High Up
type writers, electric light bulbs and conjured up by these travelogues is orange frames which matched the on a Baroque Palazzo'. Nice Style is
paint; it needs posters and catalogues, usually suggestive of a vanishing part of colour of the pen. The drawings were back, and what a triumphant return!
postage stamps and vacuum cleaners; Nature or more recently of some likeable for their carefree, coy Gone is the somewhat frigid air of their
above all it needs people — cleaners remote cultural data. The visual simplicity but lacked, for me, a Hanover Grand performance, while the
and attendants as well as secretaries and content seems to lie rather greater message. facile reliance on bravura trouser-crease
directors. On the other hand it does uncomfortably within a contemporary Frequently Tremlett chooses a alignments, which has marred previous
not need inflation or an economic structure for art works consisting subject and offers a portion of the work, is replaced by a renewed
recession. It does not need a building of photographs, minimal drawings and entire alphabet of its usual variations. confidence, more highly-defined seam
which is structurally defective, in printed lettering. One senses each time An example in this show was the work, and a greater willingness to take
which buckets collect the rain which that there is a David Tremlett water piece titled Cool, clear water. risks in the area of cuff-extrusion.
pours through the roof, and in which personality trying to reach out beyond It also consisted of uniformly-sized Inevitably, when the rigours of
faulty wiring produces intermittent the familiar establishment mode and units, made this time of grayish advanced posture prove too great to
fusing of the lights. media of documentation. photographs arranged end to end in an maintain, the group occasionally
The basic figures which lie at Among the 'New Works' by elongated S-shape. Although the overplays its hand, or handle, as when
the heart of the trouble are simple Tremlett shown at Nigel Greenwood's appearance of the water was in each Bruce's latent aggression during
enough. From the Arts Council comes the two wall pieces about Charlie, frame physically different from all the preparatory rapid-posing erupts into a
£15,000; from the GLC £10,000; from an aborigine, were somewhat of a others, the overall tone and angle of superfluous exuberance around the
the boroughs of Tower Hamlets and fresh departure in that the inspiration the camera showed a dispassionate wrist and fingers, occasionally falling
Hackney about £2500. Various came from a nugget of folklore approach. On the other hand the off into something approaching tat.
other sums arrive at intervals from probably discovered in conversation. title belonged to the evocative: These moments are rare, however, and
private or corporate donations. The In Tremlett's hands Charlie's work language of advertising which has also the inexorable progression through
overheads of the gallery run to about underwent metamorphosis and his been used effectively by Ruscha and increasingly complex knee and shin
£28,000 a year. thoughts became two abstract but Gilbert & George. Tremlett's manoeuvres proceeds with deceptive
Early in October the Trustees held three-dimensional objects. One work inclination toward a popular ease to a climactic composure on the
a meeting at which it became apparent was about Charlie's Bullfinch Rainbow identification with his subject matter Italianate pool-cum-couch ( a sly
that by the end of the financial year and the other was titled To Charlie: was seen more emphatically in the reference, here, to Pistoletto's
there would be an estimated deficit of from a description of a maze given song pieces, especially the one using ambiguous spaces), which brought
some £17,000. The consequences are to me by Charlie, an aborigine from the words 'What made Milwaukee gasps of surprise and delight from the
that the exhibition 'The City in Images, the Southern plains of Australia. For famous'. audience.
Music and Words', intended to be a the second piece the artist had placed Perhaps the most thought- Significantly, the group has
lively correlation of all the arts on a on the wall a winding line of provoking group of works was a set of embraced, in its hard-won ease of
single theme, has had to be identically-sized graphite-covered three drawings in which the movement, areas of twentieth-century
indefinitely postponed; savage staff paper rectangles, each drawing representation of an object, symbolic art previously shunned. Eliminating
cuts are taking place, and despite protected by Perspex. The units to the aborigine culture, was placed references to all those New York
rigid economies, all that will be were continuous from one end to below a row of diapositives of the painters whose work Greenberg