Lookbooks

Who doesn’t love audio video art? Narrative or no narrative, it keeps up with our accelerated consumption and it somehow feels like more of a spectacle to behold. Presenting an orgy of weird and wonderful video art, this latest exhibition at Vyner Street’s DegreeArt space is hectic and mesmeric. With works from eight of the gallery’s resident artists on show, prepare to enter a slipstream of the radically experimental to the quietly captivating.

Come launch night, the name on everyone’s lips was George Petrou. The London-based artist had several pieces on show from his series Occurrences in Being: Five Successive Episodes on Individuality and Love. Experimenting with the human challenge of remaining still for hours at a time, each piece keeps the viewer (and the subject) on tender hooks, as they remain trapped in a suspended role.

The show continues with a mention-worthy piece from Tobias Zehntner. Drawing out fascination from the mundane, the artist’s seminal triptych Break Time, documents the arbitrary movements of workers on a cigarette break, which has the same hypnotic appeal as people watching and will most likely keep you transfixed for minutes on end, awaiting some sort of crescendo.

Rachel Maclean’s Going Bananas is the perfect antithesis to all the slow cook action. Awash in garish psychedelic hues, the artist plays a bevy of ridiculous characters as banality and erotic fulfillment are explored via the humble fruit. Trippy, slapstick and totally tawdry, this piece refuses to take a backseat.

From happy, happy joy, joy to Corinne Day ethereality, Jessica Sarah Rinland’s dreamy image of a sweatshirt and jeans girl twisting silently on a VW Polo still hangs in my mind. Without wanting to make too many comparisons, her quiet and eerie grey sky works are reminiscent of Harmony Korine-esque teen kicks. And the whispery Spanish words of Darse Cuenta will make the hairs on your neck stand to attention.

Audio Video is on show at the DegreeArt space until July 29th.