Zed Mot: Laura Yuile & Mat Jenner @ Generation & Display

I don’t think I’ve ever really been in a gallery with just myself; only me and the art. Maybe when I used to work as an invigilator, but when ur watching over the work like that, your relationship to it becomes more tense. You aren’t looking at it in the same way. I got the cleaner to let me in (he was very nice n wished me merry xmas when I left), and switched on the gallery lights myself. No press release, just me and the work. It was silent. The work was sparse, but I didn’t feel alone in the room. Just like I was there with a softly-spoken friend.

That’s a good way to describe the works: softly-spoken.

The sculptures were kinda dirty, but dirty-on-purpose. The dirt was mixed into the work. Like when u don’t wash spring onions properly, and bite into something gritty even though it’s all cooked. It served as a reminder of rawness: metal-taste in my mouth when I’m scared.

The wall pieces were milky and cleaner, but in a streaky window kinda way. They reminded me of that show I wrote about earlier way way back this year. I think it was Harm VanDenDorpel @ Narrative Projects? The works in THAT show had a cringey kind of strength to the concept/purpose, but the works at surface value had a beautiful creamy softness that I respected and valued. The works in THIS show had the added benefit of being unstable in a beautiful way. I love and admire when artists are confident and sure enough to place something indefinite (or perhaps i should stick with the word unstable) in a gallery like that. I love it when work doesn’t look me in the eye, address me by name. When things are indeterminate and in flux. It’s the best feeling, that something is being grappled with; being actively resolved. It’s even better that these works were so beautiful while doing that. There was a sense of balance, and of composition that I’ve never been able to grasp a hold of in my own work. My work feels messy and clunky and sprawling; this was refined. Like a hint of a herb. Well seasoned indeed. I should say, that I forgot this was a show of 2 ppl’s work. It had no seams and I enjoyed and admired that. It all fell down my throat in one gulp, no mean feat, and a testament to the refinement of the room.

I wish I had spent more time with the work. I wish I had spent more time listening to them. But I was badly parked, and I already felt like a burglar, intruding on a quiet space. I left as quietly as possible. I made sure the door didn’t slam shut on my way out.

Zed Mot is on till 19h Jan at Generation & Display, by appointment.

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