Fred Tomaselli: Paper

Thought provoking exhibition at White Cube, Masons’ Yard, of new work by Fred Tomaselli.

The show consisted of two different sets of work photograms upstairs and large collage pictures based on New York Times covers downstairs. The upstairs work was intriguing with ‘portraits’ of people devised by talking to them about the drugs they have taken and representing this like a mind map including their date of birth and using the shape of the constellation of their star sign. The fact he was described in the handout as “a visual taxonomist” appealed to the librarian in me.

Upstairs there were also beautiful pictures using leaves arranged on photographic paper then exposed to light. He then paints over the resulting images with very precise colourful geometric patterns. I loved these as they were so carefully painted.

However the fun really started downstairs we the wonderful large scale reproductions of New York Times covers with the photographs replaced by collages and paintings twisting and emphasising the headlines. The hand out says they are seeing to stop time and record facts before they “vaporise into obsolesce”. I loved the large scale of these works and the mix of humour and pathos involved. On depicting a women grieving following an air crash covered the image of her with beautiful, winding flowers.

As interesting sometimes were the other headlines round the main story which Tomaselli had not chosen to illustrate but which helped to define the context of the story. I so want to read “We have met the enemy and his name is Power Point”!

Closes on 13 May 2017

 

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