An der Rampe II & III by Bronwen Sleigh
Last night two of my favourite pictures in the Troubadour Gallery
were hung directly over the head of Thom Yorke, an unfortunate
curatorial solecism which made it almost impossible to have a proper
look at the art without giving the biggest genius in modern rock a
proper look at your groin. A bit awkward. Yorke was sitting there in
the corner, I later discovered, because his wife Rachel Owen
was one quarter of this all-female group show above a restaurant in the
wilds of west London. And as much as I wanted to run my fingers all
over his bearded face in a sort of low-tech imitation of the Geometric Informatics system used in Radiohead's latest video, I wasn't there for Yorke, or his for wife, but for print-maker Bronwen Sleigh.
I first saw Sleigh's art at Dazed's party
for the 2008 RCA graduate show, of which it was the clear highlight.
Sleigh, 28, makes beautiful etchings that fall somewhere between
architectural blueprints, assembly instructions, circuit diagrams, and
pure abstraction. Although her earlier work drew more explicitly
on the pylon-punctuated landscapes of Scotland, the pieces in Four
Corners translate rectilinear industrial geometries into tense,
scratchy, colourful forms - you could call it musique concrète. JG Ballard seemed like an obvious inspiration, but Sleigh told me she'd actually never read him.
There was also some deft architectural work from Rachel Owen, with
smeared photographic prints of churches, balconies and dinosaur bones
that more than made up for some slightly twee stuff with a mop-haired
child. (Noah Yorke, perhaps? I should have taken pictures of the
pictures and sold them to Q for $11 million.) Meanwhile, I wasn't sure what to make of Hetty Haxworth's amoeboid abstracts or Helen Fay's little dogs, but they were a pleasant counterpoint to Sleigh and Owen's more austere styles.
Four Corners is on at the Troubadour Gallery on Old Brompton Road until Sunday July 20, at which point the legendary Prime Time Video on Earls Court Road reverts to being the only worthwhile place to visit in Fulham.