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It is always a pleasure to visit Arcadia’s Gallery to see what contemporary delights curator Richard Torchia has provided. Though it must be a hard act to follow the amazing Olafur Eliasson show of 2006, Torchia and company stay true to edgy, small-scale conceptual art that often uncovers subtleties that are overlooked by the money-soaked industry that produces art magazines. London-based Daniel Eatock’s show, Extra Medium, has a light touch and is full of witticisms galore. A cheeky, underlying humor belies his precise and analytical work and although the idea is always key, it is the way the idea is made into a real object or action that allows the work to resonate. Is this an honest new chapter in neo-conceptual canon? I only ask myself this half seriously, but it doesn’t matter. In Eatock’s case, the delivery of the work is quirky; that is what gives it definitive signature. There are interventions of all kinds that breed across art, design, and sound. Each piece utilizes a unique form whether Powerpoint, student collaborations, vinyl LPs, recording, photo documentation, or bleeding felt pens! His inquiries may be neo-conceptual – which means they are gated by earlier time-honored proposals – but it is his contemporary personalizations that make the viewing unique. Eatock is a marvelous tinkerer, an idea man with a hands-on attitude. The collaborative piece Best Before Oct. 26, 2009 asks for audience participation. Initially, I thought finding a product that expires on that date would be easy given the bounty of America’s anti-nutritious food, but it took a while. Finally, after a week’s search, a Little Debbie Apple Pie from Rite Aid on Chestnut Street joined the other contributions in the gallery. I didn’t know such a food-stuff existed and, apparently, it contains natural ingredients that create a limited shelf life. Beatle Lyric from 2000 was not merely a good piece, it was a prime example of a simple notion that goes far beyond the initial idea. It becomes much brighter via its fabrication. The entire Beatles song catalogue (every song they recorded, in sequence) fits on a fairly moderate size sheet of paper. The words themselves are only readable – in my case, from about three inches with bifocals – when standing very close. Is this 2-point type, as unreadable as the instructions on a prescription bottle? Only an artist-slash-designer -- someone well acquainted with the shape and function of letters -- would come up with this. This offset print appears to be an anonymous (minimalist) grey rectangle when viewed from more than a few feet away and it made my visit. The fact that the Fab Four, so indispensable to the formative years of so many, can be filed away on a single sheet of paper! Incorporated into contemporary art via an intellectual process, it makes one consider the very nature of documentation. Surely, Mr.Eatock is not old enough to care about the Fab Four – now dwindling to two on this side of the Styx – at least not in the same way. But using the Beatles’ words as a marker of time and signifying the group’s impact, yes.* Patience is well rewarded with a show such as this.
Especially when first viewing the “shelf” piece aptly called
Do Not Touch (counter-balanced shelves) 2008. At first, it looks
like a standard sort of installation of non-descript items displayed nominally,
until you realize the near invisible precision keeping the thing level
and upright. There is only one bracket under each shelf! So it is the
objects themselves that balance the shelves. Sure, any handyman will get
the lesson on balance, but what about the physics of gravity? This gives
the piece some extra weight – pun intended. Nothing is taken for
granted, especially not a universal thing. Ask Isaac Newton. Nearby, a
student, standing guard, looked a bit worried, waiting for the whole contraption
to collapse while on her watch. This was just before I noticed the precarious
set-up. * PS: I Love You: I may have a question about the initial selection of Beatle tunes. I’m pretty sure the first single from October 5, 1962 was Love Me Do (with the B-Side, PS, I Love You) and not When I Saw Her Standing There. Of course this could vary with definition of discography. I believe Mr. Eatock is using UK album releases discography to make his list. Bonus Trivia Question for extra points: What is the connection between conceptual art and the Beatles? That’s an easy one, Pop-Pickers. Fluxus member Yoko Ono!!
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