Last week I visited the Vitrine Gallery in Bermondsey
Street, round the corner from London Bridge station. I went to see the work of London-based artist
Edwin Burdis because my project this term concerns my creation of a character
with an imagined identity. His
paintings are life-sized plywood painted and collaged figures depicting a tribe
of plumbers with names and crude characteristics. The
figures are chimeras made up of “tools of the plumber’s trade”, animal parts,
and costumes, and are sexually and physically ambiguous. Each unsettling character is a role-player with
multiple personalities in some sort of performance, and is given a description
in the artist’s notes. “Plumbarius U Bend wants to fuck the Plumbers: Flecher so badly, but he is
way too shy to try.”
This is described in his write-up as “the worker, the farmer
and the plumber form the highest priesthood.”
He emphasizes the plumbers provide us with “clean water in the home,
clean water forever..which enables everything on this planet to live.” He is comparing this idea of an essential
life-giving network to the network of the Internet. His preliminary drawings for the final pieces
are displayed in the adjoining room.
The artist works in a variety of styles – painting, sound,
sculpture, and drawing, as well as operatic film.
I was not impressed with these works, which I found
derivative. Although I quite enjoyed the
surreal elements, I didn’t follow his rationale regarding “clean water”. His write-up goes on to talk about Aby
Warburg an influential art historian who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and
manic depression and escaped the institution by “performing” his insanity,
which I guess is what these characters are doing.
The gallery itself is a pretty non-descript, two-roomed white-walled
space, but it is welcoming, and they are happy for you to take photographs.
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