Future Relics

★★★★☆

On until 12 July 2025

“Reskilling” has the same ring in art as “reindustrialisation” does in geopolitics. After decades of jettison and outsourcing of expertise and craft, a new fad for the ornate and “made in X” now drives the art market as well as industrial policy. The CNC machine replaced the lathe, the hand, if not the eye, in the artist’s studio, and in so doing laid ground for a performance of nostalgia. 

What was Trump’s “clean coal”, then, and who’ll forge all this steel? Steven Claydon’s Decline and Fall, an aluminium and bronze eagle hanged off its own rope, is right on the nose. Apollinaria Broche’s ceramic flower and silver-plated cobwebs speak to a pastoral aesthetics now only available on Etsy. But a quaint wood, wax, and mirror room panel from Mathilde Albouy stakes a claim on a decorative tradition rejected long ago for more than a single reason. These “relics” must be as reactionary as they are futuristic.


notes and notices are short and curt exhibition reviews. Read more:

Eddie Ruscha, Seeing Frequencies at Cedric Bardawil ★☆☆☆☆

Eddie Ruscha

Seeing Frequencies

Seeing Frequencies

★☆☆☆☆

But either the curator or the artist should have known better.

Christopher Aque, Alexandre Khondji at Sweetwater and Studio M ★★★★★

Christopher Aque, Alexandre Khondji

★★★★★

Aesthetic cognition or crossword puzzles only rarely bring such perverse pleasure.

Rose Finn-Kelcey, Suit of Lights at Kate MacGarry ★★★★☆

Rose Finn-Kelcey

Suit of Lights

Suit of Lights

★★★★☆

Local-art-centre retro exposes the breakdown of the feminist art project.

Esteban Jefferson, May 25th, 2020 at Goldsmiths CCA ★★★☆☆

Esteban Jefferson

May 25th, 2020

May 25th, 2020

★★★☆☆

This exhibition is a warning to would-be propagandists: trust art at your peril.

Justin Caguiat, Dreampop at Modern Art ★★★★☆

Justin Caguiat

Dreampop

Dreampop

★★★★☆

This is the sort of exhibition that makes a critic question the quality of their judgment.

Oisín Byrne, Not Marble at Amanda Wilkinson ★★☆☆☆

Oisín Byrne

Not Marble

Not Marble

★★☆☆☆

Byrne has a type. Or rather, he’ll paint you into one.

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