 Side A and Side B, 2005 Graham Hudson Perhaps hard to pin down, Hudson's practice is full of curious juxtapositions and breaks in style. His references are wide ranging, from religion to contemporary advertising, whilst his concerns range from both the moral and ethical to aesthetic and the mundane. Graham Hudson makes work for a world overloaded with information; he is concerned with our relationship to this world of excess and how we order and understand it. More often than not, Hudson will source his materials from the streets around him, building constructions from discarded furniture and pound store plastics. These items can then be veneered or treated to seductive lighting, the artist investing in them in a manner inconsistent with their previous throw away status. The stuff that makes up Hudson's work is of today and our immediate history. However the artist often reaches back into history to give new meaning to his creations, infusing them with new life and offering a means of understanding and ordering our surroundings. Hudson could be said to descend from the legacy of Duchamp, but he also references the Pop sensation of the 60's and has even been seen to tackle the age old subject of The Crucifixion. Whilst referencing some of arts all time greats Hudson continues to dissect contemporary concerns and lampoon the 21st Century's means of communication. In dislocating his materials from their immediate setting and referencing historical eras of artistic importance his materials actually become empty signs and as such it could be said that it is the symbol of the original that is of interest to Hudson. For his solo exhibition at Rokeby Hudson will create one of his largest interventions in a gallery to date. Using other peoples cast-offs Hudson will construct a large scale sculpture which will dominate the whole of the upstairs gallery. The installation could be read as a nod to the Baroque, not just as a return to the forms of that period, but as a kind of means of organisation and with a definite approach to representation. Hudson's sculpture will suggest the complex taste for infinite spaces and showmanship favored by the period but will also point to the concerns that run through the artist's work; his interest in organizing the uncertain and the difficulty in categorizing the world around us. As with all of Hudson's work its authoritative posture is rendered absurd through its combination of materials. Other works on display will include new drawings, a re-fabricated empty advertiser's sign, slowly rotating on its axis, radiating light as it proudly offers no product for sale. As well as works form the series of frames, made from off cuts of wood - a recurrent motif/material of the artist. A frame is an object usually defined by its role, Hudson however reverses this making the frame the artistic object, denying it its purposes; painted in bright slick colours the artist hints again at an era of artistic greatness... the flowing form of a Braque, or a Carl Andre or a game of double-bluff. Hudson graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2002. In 2005 he will be a Henry Moore Fellow working on the Parade Ground of the new Chelsea College of Art and Design, next to Tate Britain on Milbank. In 2004 he was awarded a Jerwood Artist's Platform. Hudson has exhibited extensively throughout the UK and internationally in Germany, Austria, France and Japan. Recent exhibitions include "England their England", Laden Fuer Nichts, Leipzig, "Acid Rain", Glassbox, Paris and "Larry's Cocktails" a group show at Gagosian, Heddon St, London. Exhibition: 16 November - 20 December 2005 Gallery hours: Tues-Fri 11 am - 6 pm, Sat 11 am - 4 pm, Late night Thursday 11 am - 8 pm Rokeby 37 Store Street GB-London WC1E 7QF Telephone +44 (0)20 7168 9942 Fax +44 (0)7813 144 919 Email rokeby@rokebygallery.com www.rokebygallery.com |
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