Review by Faye of the BBC website team
The Flatlands exhibition, at The Gallery in Stratford, shows the work by six young artists, Clive Caswell, Ben Cove, S Mark Gubb, Tony McCorry, Adele Prince and Furio Torracchi.
Artistic license
| |  | Window painting by S Mark Gubb
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The works in the Flatlands show are very closely connected visually, but I had trouble linking them all thematically.
Both the title and the show blurb declare a connection with flat (graphic style) and lands (landscape).
The first is clearly evident, but the curator is asking the audience to have a very loose interpretation of lands or landscape.
The shadow lands
| |  | Painting by Tony McCorry in Flatlands
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Most of Flatlands conforms to an idea of landscape, but a number of the works jarr with that theme.
Tony McCorry's sanitised paintings offer an uncomfortably impersonal viewing experience. As images of interiors, dominated by brickwork, they sit awkwardly in the description of landscape.
| |  | 'The Artist' print by Adele Prince
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More loosely connected is the work by Adele Prince. Despite their beauty, her instruction-style prints of her body and routine don't seem to have been inspired by the Flatlands theme.
The blurb says she explores human behaviour in a consumer-led society, but the work fails to deliver.
Instead, I feel it reinforces our desire to consume cleanliness and order. A hint of chaos might be better to investigate our boundaries and behaviour.
Three ways of seeing
I think these works jarred for me because some of the others are surprisingly similar. Flatlands is a group show of just six people, three of which have striking similarities.
This creates an awkward position for the remaining three, needing to be both individual and a cohesive part of the group.
| |  | One of Clive Caswell's paintings
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The three artists that sit together almost too well are Clive Caswell, S Mark Gubb and Furio Torracchi.
Caswell's paintings of featureless scenery stereotypes are reminiscent of Mr Men illustrations. Curious ans entertaining, they explore relationships between audience and environment well.
Gubb's windows work equally well and are surprisingly similar, although with these works the viewer is trapped inside the gallery, looking out at the artificial landscape beyond.
| |  | Painting by Furio Torracchi
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Torracchi's paintings are also visually and thematically surprisingly similar. The main difference is that he focuses the audience more on the details of a view - a park is reduced to a tree and a sky is seen as a signpost. The exhibition blurb claims
Graphically strong
The collection is beautifully presented, as the graphic and bold cartoon styles lend themselves well to a crisp, eye-catching show. The images are flat, simple and built from areas of bold colour.
The power of perfection
This near-perfect style does have a disadvantage. It is all too easy to image browsing this collection in Habitat or a similar interior design shop. There is just so much style here, the works glide easily over the brain, with little to trouble the audience or engage thought.
Wheely animated
| |  | One of Ben Cove's mobile paintings
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There was one striking and simple exception to this aesthetic ease. Ben Cove's mobile panels were comic in construction as well as style and couldn't help but raise a smile. His seven-foot panels were all precariously balanced on large trolley wheels, echoing the unstable scenes of near-disaster they depicted.
Go and see
In its exploration of our preoccupation with paring down, simplifying and reducing, I think the Flatlands exhibition sometimes falls into its own trap of conforming too well to aesthetic and thematic simplicity.
However, the show is definitely worth seeing, as it teeters on the edge of some fascinating themes.
The exhibition is free and is open until 12 January 2003.
Visitor details
The Gallery is an exhibition space on the first floor of Stratford Leisure and Visitor Centre.
The leisure centre is a five-minute walk from the town centre and a 15-minute walk from the railway station. There is a pay and display car park adjacent to the centre.
The opening times are Monday - Sunday 9.00am - 7.00pm
Admission is free.
For further information contact The Gallery on 01789 414412 or email using the link on the left.
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