Pr!vate 51 at Sheffer Gallery


Author : Finn McGrath


This review/ critique will take a tripartite approach. There is a lot of content output to cover for this show. So in three parts I hope to breakdown exactly what I think is most useful looking at this eclectic exhibition. 

1. The Instagram account

How we all get our information about upcoming events and yada yada - through social media.
The @prvate51 Instagram account is quintessential "shit-posting". Using a platform which is more or less designed as a promotional tool for hybrid shit-posting / marketing makes for a very confusing and yet slightly intriguing first interaction with this show. Shit-posting reminds me very much of Dadaism and Chance art in which contextless whimsy direct a casual viewer to a state of confused observing which renders no complete emotion. No tears, or laughter. To be clear this isn't to be confused with the red-pilled shit-posting of 2016, it's gone beyond that now, into a territory which reflects some sort of absurdist metropolitan dissonance. Which might seem reminiscent to dissidence of the Enlightenment which Romanticism embodied.

To me this account and its presence is anti-curatorial convention - celebrating art and performance free of the margins of the gallery. The functionality of Instagram is translated into an ornamental frame - a pastiche of purpose. 

All that being said... I genuinely had no idea what this was until I went to the exhibition opening, which was both deterring and interesting... I guess. I'm slightly unconvinced only because of the fine-line which they are required to walk between actual shit and intriguing nonchalant-ness. 

2. The opening 

To be completely honest I just got my tonsils out about a week ago and this is my first day not on heavy painkillers. Which means I was really high when I went to the opening night. 

My spaced-out demeanour was definitely not out of place at this opening. The chaos was immediately apparent when rounding a corner and seeing a sheath of people on the road in front of the space. Good music, good people and cake were all in attendance. All the usual folks were patrons of the gallery, and I wish I was more lucid to have an opportunity to take in all the art. Instead all I left with was Oxycontin nausea and an overwhelming feeling I said something stupid. 

3. The exhibition

Going back two days later to have a proper look at the art, I think my overarching feeling is culminated into a question. Why display one thing rather than the other?

I can't help but feel that within the space you juxtapose everything with everything. No individual moment truly stands out from one another. Hence, the question. Although, I can see how that actually might be the point! It reminds me of my living room and kitchen which I share with my housemate. I think anyone who has lived in a share house would know what I mean. And in that there is beauty and care, where care might be not be most obviously present. 

You can see all of this immediately when you walk in and a splayed harpsichord is thrown at the beginning front of the space (pictured above). With a cup half full leaning on its top, and a shelf leaning over its backpiece supporting by one Bic lighter and a polymorphic doll house. In an overwhelming way I get the impression that in this space, this moment, the objects should forever be where they are placed. As if they have been assigned new object roles in some theatrical re-definition. 

This immense collaboration treks the beaten path of found objects and assemblages in a way which comes across like the beginnings of a newly assembled family. Honest, ad hoc and lovely to be around.

This was definitely an interesting show and I'm glad that I was able to write this and collect some of my thoughts about it. There are more interesting things coming from @prvate51 in the following days, so have a look. Sheffer Gallery is located at 38 Lander Street, Darlington. 

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