Emblem – Deconstructed And Destroyed: A Homage To John Latham,
Trinity ∴,
London, 2011
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Douglas Park's text for Aoife
Van Linden Tol's performance works at Trinity ∴
Secretly hidden, incognito and
undercover, terrain-wound and body-crater patiently wait dormant, during time
passed away, throughout ominous cease-fire calm, before the imminent storm
pending, advent well-prepared for.
Live-rail thunderbolt
force-field strikes prey. Crashlanded shipwreck pile-ups collapse inwardly. But
not spent. Detonated alchemical overreaction outburst erupts discovery.
All along this awhile,
lightening-conductor target was really bait-laden trap, set and sprung, gotten
ready to fall into, one-way only at that, no escape once caught. Upon delivery
and arrival, burning ghost stains flameproof shield.
Grave given birth to comes
alive. Ensuing growth, shrinkage and changes follow head-on collision
impact.
Flat and shallow facade ends up
as infinitely vast and full depths. Unique strangeness, beauty, magic, meaning
and power haunt and lure.
Demolition-casualty becomes
weather-generator. Thereafter, compulsory enforcement and infliction of
broadcast and transmitted export produce and services.
©, Copyright, Douglas Park
The exhibition, Emblem – Deconstructed And Destroyed : A Homage To John Latham, brought together two artists whose work shoulders the legacy of the late U.K
conceptual-artist, John Latham (1921 — 2006).
conceptual-artist, John Latham (1921 — 2006).
London and Berlin-based artist, Aoife Van Linden Tol, has developed a practice based in a highly distinct form of graphics and object-making, developed through residencies and collaboration with professional training and research bodies, within the realm of explosives handling and testing, such as the COTEC (Cranfield Ordnance Test and Evaluation Centre) and ISSEE (International School for Security and Explosives Education) firing ranges at Salisbury Plain and BAM – The Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Berlin.
Van Linden Tol’s work has ranged from large-scale gunpowder drawings, to more intimate objects, using printed matter.
Obvious similarities between work by Van Linden Tol and that of Latham are the usage of found books as materials — and subjecting them to pyrotechnics.
But beyond that, other deeper mutual-links become apparent.
Both Van Linden Tol and Latham’s works employ supposed damage and destruction, causing transformation, born from out of the old and arguably obsolete and faulty.
The intended purpose behind books and documents, their meaning, whats expected of them and associations arising are also fully acknowledged.
Stain, burn, tearing and debris mark-making and traces left in Latham’s spray-gun paintings, “Skoob” sculptures, instant “One Second Drawings” and “Roller Blinds” and the condition of Van Linden Tol’s forensic evidence treasure relics come across precious and contemplative, as though some strange and maybe magical language and
microcosmos constellations.
microcosmos constellations.
Then, the private studio action or public-live event of production and end-result experienced exists on the same wavelength as origins and ongoing processes of
the world and universe.
the world and universe.
All along, external socio-political reality and other wider factors are engaged with throughout, including the methodology of materials-science, physics, duration,
utility and the ordering of knowledge and values.
utility and the ordering of knowledge and values.
©, Copyright, Douglas Park, November, 2011
Video: Aoife Van Linden Tol, performance with black-powder explosives,
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