Art at Milton Keynes

Hot on the heels of the news that UK created-centre, Milton Keynes, is a Grade 2 listed building, I visit a stunning exhibition there, with a blue denim catwalk that envelopes the building…

Hot on the heels of the news that UK shopping centre created in the late 70s, Milton Keynes, is a Grade 2 listed building, I visit a stunning exhibition there, featuring a blue denim catwalk that envelopes the building.

The solo exhibition entitled THE THE THINGS IS (FOR 3) presents the work of an anonymous London-based artist working with sound, performance, collage and photography.

My favourite of the artist’s work was a long lightbox of overlaid images taken from a 70s black and white photo book of classically posed nudes, called ‘Woman Man Man Woman Woman Woman Man Man 1975 George M. Hester’ (2010).

Below: the lightbox artwork.

The images of nude men and women take on new sexualities when overlaid and the pictures underneath showing through as body parts of both genders intermingle. Bodies merge and create blurred boundaries in the superimposed photos.

Below: walking the red carpet changes to a stroll on the blue carpet, with a strip of blue denim that wraps the entire gallery inside and out.

The blue denim catwalk is entitled No No More Than Denim (F*ck F*ck F*ck) (2010) and provides one of a number of loops in the exhibition, along with the collage of magazine images, also seen pictured above, entitled Another Ring Of Balls (2010). The magazine images, collected over several years, and pasted around the gallery, all depict an image of a ball, arranged in order of size and carefully arranged so each ball is aligned.

With the artist’s humour and geometry and experimentation with language, image, form and identity, this is an eclectic exhibition that explores interpretations and narratives.

And after all, how often does one get to walk a blue carpet?

Megan Robinson, 19 July 2010.