 Mechanical Digger, 2003 pen on paper, 16 1/2 x 23 1/2 in / 42 x 60 cm Hazel McLeod Cavalcade of Curious Contraptions The driver of a J.C.B. mechanical digger pulls his hair out in frustration while shouting angrily at a pedestrian. A man holding a placard witnesses the scene. Nothing so unusual, except that the characters are all wearing flamboyant 16th century costumes and the industrial digger is highly decorated with floral motifs. For her exhibition in the Gimpel Fils Lower Gallery, Hazel McLeod has produced a series of drawings, a cavalcade of curious contraptions. Inspired by the woodcut series "The Triumph of Maximilian" that included work by Albrecht Dürer and Hans Burgkmair, McLeod's pen and ink images present a world of minstrels, knights, exotic animals and modern day machines. Creating a contemporary version of a baroque procession, the highly detailed drawings combine the historical, the everyday and the fantastic to intriguing ends. The procession of extravagant characters driving, riding, and steering a series of strange vehicles becomes disorientating and demands a second look. Yes, that is an elephant standing next to a parking meter. Many of the vehicles in McLeod's cavalcade have their origin in military design. Machines used for war, aircraft, tanks, and trucks are transformed from sleek technology into delicate carriages for opulently dressed renaissance warriors. A minstrel with a feather in his cap and a monkey sit astride the gun barrel of a tank, somehow neutralising and emphasising the potential danger simultaneously. The decorative scalloped details that are inscribed on the surface of Chinook helicopter counteracting its latent ferocity. Hazel McLeod's drawings are based in the imaginary and the idiosyncratic. Juxtaposing these odd 16th century characters with modern vehicles, these works suggest a movement through time, but to where? These are nondescript anonymous landscapes, their blankness acts to heighten the strangeness of the scenes depicted. Being unable to locate these places, viewers are left in a surreal limbo; this is neither the past nor the future. The people parading occupy the gap between reality and fiction. There is enough truth in these works to render them familiar, but enough fiction to make that familiarity unstable. This is the exhilarating vacillation between the historical, the present, and the incredible. This is the fifth exhibition to be held in The Lower Gallery. The Lower Gallery opened in November 2004 as a dedicated contemporary art space devoted to showcasing work by emerging and established artists who have not previously exhibited at the gallery. Exhibition: 7 September - 15 October 2005 Gallery hours: Mon-Fri 10 am - 5.30 pm, Sat 11 am - 4 pm Gimpel Fils Lower Gallery 30 Davies Street GB-London, W1K 4NB Telephone +44 20 7493 2488 Fax +44 20 7629 5732 Email info@gimpelfils.com www.gimpelfils.com |
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