In the heart of Dalston, down the end of a small alley road was a large garage with a little door. Through this door, a group of 24 artists showcased their work. Sculpture, music, performance and photography took place in the old car workshop that was far away from the usual pristine white walls of gallery spaces and created a rustic, and inspiring location for this exhibition, MC Motors.
With flame heaters to warm those tootsies, and the symphonious sound of a violinist haunting the open rooms, I found myself immersed in the eclectic furniture and art.
Sitting on a small row of old cinema chairs, I watched Alana Revell-Rohr and Charlie Sekers’ presentation of two simultaneous slide projections. On the white and heavily chipped brick walls they had written sentences, which as the slides changed, made utterly random and odd sentences, such as ‘think of the possibilities…ginger used to some with us’. James Gillham‘s installation of a suspended boxing bag and a series of photographs of boxers faced Andrea Greenwood‘s gym bars. Christopher Patrick’s rusty, brass bed frame contrasted with his bunches of coloured pencils hung throughout the entire room (below). On the table, a small china ornament of a lady and a man, broken to reveal the river of red crystals. A giant blackened banana was decorated with white and red patterns by Ben Nathan, and Katie Miller had her photograph of a woman squatting on a wooden chair, with a large black paper cone on her head, covering her face; a surreal portrait perhaps.
Anna Sikorska had a giant installation of what looked like a huge upturned, dead flower, and a fully laid dinner table with knobs of butter. Molly Gibson’s photographs, portraying the different cultures of 5 shopkeepers, hung in the back room with the parked retro car. Up the spiral staircase, was a short film of an OAP in his residential home. “I eat porridge everyday,” said Gordan, a 62-year-old pensioner.
So there we have it, MC Motors, an exhibition heaving with expensive collectables made into art; a backlash at the contemporary, formal galleries with little imagination.
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