‘Sorry It’s A Mess, We Just Moved In!’ @ LAMB Gallery
Curated by Roya Sachs, LAMB’s Gallery’s current group show Sorry It’s A Mess, We Just Moved In! explores notions of transience, impermanence and identity in everyday objects. Roughly categorised into three sections, the exhibition follows a natural progression from objects that purport a historical resonance, to the more contemporary and objects that focus on impermanence and deterioration. The title references the gallery’s recent move into their new space located in the heart of Mayfair, just off New Bond Street.
The question at the heart of this exhibition is: what objects do we consider to be disposable or valuable, irrelevant or irreplaceable? This sculpture-heavy exhibition unveils objects outside of their typical contexts, probing the viewer to consider how attached they are to the physical objects that surround them. On entering the space, one is faced with Patricia Camet’s expansive PANEL series: a plethora of paraphernalia, typically plastic items, cast in ceramic form. Camet renders each ceramic item with a facial expression, thereby personifying these otherwise inanimate objects. By casting cheap plastic packaging in plaster molds, Camet is passing comment on the wasteful state of our existence.
Patricia Camet, PANEL 107, 2011-2018. Source: LAMB Gallery.
Juxtaposing the cheap residue of the plastic packaging industry is Isa Genzken’s Nefertiti, which confronts the viewer at eye level. Genzken’s plaster replica bust of Nefertiti, Queen of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, evokes an ideal of beauty, contrasting the plastic, discarded items hung nearby.
Other sculptural forms in the exhibition, such as Rolf Sachs’s PECHEUR and Haim Steinbach’s Untitled (Pantone 872) pay homage to Duchamp’s readymade. Positioning found, quotidian objects on a pedestal, the mundane, everyday is transformed and its purpose re-configured.
Towards the back of the exhibition hang two of Michel Landy’s thought-provoking watercolours, which comment on wastefulness. Landy renders in paint objects discarded on the streets during the pandemic: a neglected teddy bear and a bin bag of unwanted toys. Opposite this sits Lawrence Owen’s assemblage of street detritus and studio clutter. Once more, much like Camet, Owen has rendered plastic items as more fragile ceramics, inviting us to question our temporary relationship with such items and the impact our thoughtless wastefulness is having on the planet. Like the permanence of ceramics, such plastic household items will out-live all of us, yet this is rarely considered by the average consumer.
Michael Landy, #ABANDONEDTOY, 2020. Source: LAMB Gallery.
Michael Landy, #UNICORNINABAG, 2020. Source: LAMB Gallery.
Staged in the middle of this section of the exhibition is the work of recent Royal Academy graduate Clara Hastrup. In stark contrast to the ceramic items of Owen’s practice, Hastrup’s sculptures are perishable, needing to be replaced every one to two weeks. Commenting on the endless cycle of consumption, Hastrup plays with the function of things: turning it on its head and creating something absurd yet humorous. Anything, from a fennel to a pepper, constitutes an artistic medium to Hastrup.
In the corner, one will find Turner Prize winner (2001) Martin Creed’s precarious stack of chairs, mundanely entitled WORK NO. 998 (2009). Creed’s work celebrates the ordinary and each work is entitled with a number to ensure all are regarded on an equal footing.
Martin Creed, Work No. 998, 2009. Wood, metal an fabric. Source: LAMB Gallery.
The works comprising Sorry It’s A Mess, We Just Moved In! investigate themes of temporality, permanence/ impermanence, and materiality. There is a playful undertone to the exhibition, whilst the title references the gallery’s recent move into their new space. The selected works collectively toy with your senses, whether that be through their materiality, tantalizing or familiar presence, or their purposeful re-presentation. Unveiling objects outside of their typical contexts, there is a bemusing air about the exhibition – everything feels precariously temporary, just as though someone has just moved in.
Sorry It’s A Mess, We Just Moved In! is on until November 13th 2021.
All images courtesy of LAMB Gallery.
Olivia Wilson
Reviews Editor, MADE IN BED