9:10am Friday 20th February 2009
A fruit machine operated by bees, two disused valves roosting in a bird cage, and a post-apocalyptic monkey made from scrap metal are just a few of the weird and wonderful surprises to be found in the latest exhibition at Orleans House Stables Gallery, intriguingly named Displacement Activities.
The imaginative twosome behind it are artists-in- residence Will Bishop-Stephens and Christopher Eales. Bispho-Stephens spoke to Georgia Mann.
“We got the idea from a quote in a children’s encyclopedia,” says Bishop-Stephens. “Apparently, when a mouse is cornered by a cat, the excess of nervous energy experienced by the mouse gets channeled into the act of cleaning its whiskers.
“Artistic endeavour is a bit like that – a way of distracting ourselves from anxieties, a displacement activity.”
The exhibition is comprised of assorted drawings, sculptures and animated films, reflecting the varied output of the two artists.
Bishop-Stephens explains that the exhibition “will evolve and change throughout its run at the gallery, work will get displaced, painted over, become part of other work. It will have a developing structure, mirroring the act of animation itself”.
The most arresting piece in the room is a partly dismantled fruit machine, wired up to what appears to be a wax dolls’ house peopled by dead bees operating bee-sized machinery. So what is going on here then?
“It is about the mesmeric quality of fruit machines, the bees represent the most absurd thing you can think of to be controlling the machine.”
Things get stranger still – meet Mickey, Spacegirl and One Sick Monkey, a collection of welded metal sculptures made from skip salvages.
According to their creator, “They are post-apocalyptic characters, made from things which have a history, something becomes a tail instead or a garden gate.
“Like us, they remain halfway between the animal and post-technological worlds.”
This might all sound a little conceptual but don’t let that put you off – the drawings and animations are executed in the ‘naïve’ style made popular by the likes of David Shrigley – and nearly all of them are humorous in some way.
So what does Bishop-Stephens have to say to that old charge that “anyone could draw like that?”
“I don’t mind the vulnerability that someone else could make what I do.
“If they can then they should – art should be like a crossword puzzle, not so difficult that it becomes obtuse and not so easy it becomes meaningless”.
Displacement Activities, Orleans House, Riverside, Twickenham, until March 15, call 020 883 6000 or visit richmond.gov.uk/arts
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