Waterline, image size: 11x16", 17 framed c-prints/wood/paint, Francis Cape, 2006
London Avenue, 96x156x36", poplar/text/sandbags, Francis Cape, 2008
Francis Cape is the visiting lecturer for the sculpture department. Cape apprenticed a wood carver in York England before studying sculpture at the City and Guilds of London Art School where he achieved his BFA before moving on to achieve his masters at Goldsmiths College at the University of London. He is represented by the Chelsea and Murray Galleries and has been featured in a number of group and solo exhibitions worldwide.
Francis Cape’s lecture was a huge disappointment. Having viewed his work online I was really interested hearing what he had to say. Unfortunately, for a majority of the time he spoke about other artist’s work who I assume he was influenced by. These artists included painters, furniture designers and photographers, among others. He spoke very little about his work and from what information he was giving us I concluded that one would have to understand the history and function of furniture in the mid-late 1800’s in Britain as well as the history and fundamentals of European Socialism. His concepts were very dense and jumped around quite a bit between the history and use of furniture in England to the destruction in New Orleans and the aftermath of Katrina as a result of the Bush administration. I had a huge issue relating to his work based on just the imagery and sadly found myself even more disconnected from it while listening to Cape share his ideas.
Cape also refused to share his current work being shown at the Anderson currently because he didn't want to deter us from seeing the exhibition itself. Kate and I were discussing that seeing the work on a large screen is going to be a completely different experience from seeing it in person in a gallery space. A majority of the work he did show us were what looked like unfinished walls with dressers or small desks and shelves attached to the wall frame. The gaps between the wood supports and the patterns they formed were interesting, coupled with the more refined forms of the desks created an interesting juxtaposition. However, most of this related to having to do with furniture made in the mid 1900’s in England as a result of the world wars; furniture was made to be accessible by the public and with as few materials as possible. They were meant to be functional on multiple levels. He tied this idea in with Katrina by making the dimension of the wall in said piece (he gave no titles) the same dimensions as walls in homes near New Orleans that suffered as a result of the hurricane. He also suggested that the fragmentation visible in his unfinished walls (I assume in reference to the gaps between supports) was mean to discuss the role of the viewer in that the viewer finishes the piece and not the artist.
Cape’s work is clearly political and while I’m not very interested in this type of work I thought he made some interesting points about the Bush administration. For instance, a few pieces he showed us comprised of wooden screens that he made in response to the Bush administration’s “murdering” of the English language to conceal or hide things from the public.
One piece that I thought was the most refined and accessible was called Waterline which is an installation that involves a yellow painted chair rail or wainscoting above which framed pictures of destroyed homes in New Orleans are displayed. The yellow chair rail was meant to illustrate the water lines left by flooding from Katrina as well as a way to domesticate the gallery space in an effort to bridge the gap between what one heard in the news about Katrina and Cape’s own experiences in New Orleans. Generally it was in effort to separate oneself from the gallery space so that they may genuinely experience the destruction, though abstractly.
Francis Cape Website
Francis Cape at Anderson
No comments:
Post a Comment