Sunday 23 May 2010

Lyrics and type show





I went to visit a show called lyrics and type - the second verse. I’ts was the second installment in a series of shows hosted by the brilliant Melbourne based art and illustration magazine wooden toy quarterly. I'd bought and enjoyed a few of their publications before this so thought I had a pretty good idea of the style and standard of work to expect. The show was being held at the east gallery in bricklane, quite a neat little place. The theme of the show was that artists were invited to choose lyrics from a song which that enjoyed or had meaning for them and then incorporating the lyrics into a new piece of work for the show. It was a screen print show so everything there was easily and cheaply sellable, with the option of buying your favourite print in either 1, 2 or 3 colours depending on your price range. I thought this was quite a nice idea as it made everything a lot more accessable and affordable to your average student. Unfortunately, I get the impression that the works were not pulled by the artists themselves rather a team of screen printers in a kind of, mass produced production line, which is of course part of the beauty of the print medium however if I was going to buy a print it would be worth a lot more to me if it was created by the artist themselves.



Walking in I was immediately really enjoying the uniformed colour palette of white, blue and red which echoed through every work in the room. Framed against the white walls this looked really good and was very attractive to the eye. They had chosen to hang the prints with clips which looked all right for what it was or maybe a student exhibition but I would not expect to see work hung like this in some of the more professional establishments. I found the work to be a bit of a mixed bag. Interestingly, some of the artists which I knew prior to the show kind of failed to impress me as much as they had done in the past. Some works I didn't think were to a particularly good standard, which was disappointing because at first glance the show as a whole had a lot of impact. However, out of the midst's there were a few pieces which were really well executed and for me, seeing those up close made it worth while going. Overall I thought the exhibition was a partial success although I would love to see less of an emphasis on sell, sell, sell from the show in the way that all the prints wee A3, churned out by a team, it was obvious that they just wanted to sell out and make some money rather than being orientated to put on just a really strong show.

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