Works and Projects
A selection of different projects
Against People Against People
Rob Blake’s Against People Against People is the inaugural exhibition at East of Elsewhere. The show comprises five sculptures that are a call to action in the run up to Germany’s 2017 election. Using a combination of welded steel, bicycle wheels, spray cans, paint balloons and other found materials, there is a nod to the aesthetic languages of Minimalism and assemblage. However, the works are deeply politicised, having been created in response to the Alternative for Deutschland’s (AfD) posters plastered around Berlin in 2017. They are intended as functional objects of protest to express anger and opposition to right-wing politics.
Reminiscent of primitive Medieval weapons, with their angular lines and crude welding, the sculptures ask the viewer to seize a piece and take it to the streets. Blake fills spray cans and balloons with pink paint, which alludes to the colour and shade used by the Nazi Party to identify and mark homosexuals; these primitive attitudes are subverted in this instance to be used ‘against themselves’ as a means of defacing the alt-right’s communication techniques.
As the sculptures are borrowed and returned, marks of use accumulate. Blake asks whether art objects can also exists as functional tools of protest, questioning the status of these forms and their use value. Ultimately the exhibition insists that the viewer considers their own agency in how to respond to incipient nationalism, encouraging action rather than mere intellectual inquiry, or at worst, apathy.
Words by Camila McHugh from east of elsewhere
Installation Images
East of Elsewhere, Berlin
East of Elsewhere, Berlin
Exhibition Poster
September 22 – October 15, 2017
September 22 – October 15, 2017
TIMEFORMS, sculpture series, studio shots
Timeforms
Partially exhibited in a group show at Gr_und, BerlinMay 19 – June 21, 2017
In a mechanised society, where advances in technology are increasingly rendering human beings obsolete, the sculpture series ‘Timeforms’ looks at the relationship between human and machine to ask whether humans can empathise with such taciturn objects. As with our own bodily processes, these mechanized forms have self-driven systems that are both fragile and fallible, that could tumble, crack or dissolve at any minute.
Early Depictions of Modern Man (2017) comprises a similarly sterile frame and is made of exactly the same materials as used by Palaeolithic artist. The mustiness of charcoal combines with the chalkiness of calcium and iron oxide’s deep orange brown. Tentatively mounted within is a delicate glass panel, the abstract composition’s powdery substances has been systematically layered. These elements make up the ingredients found within all human beings, completed by the adjacent water cycle that continually leaks and dissolves.
A gentle but audible hissing quietly emanates from Just Anyone (2017), which utilises industrial materials such as steel, brick and copper piping. Water regularly drips onto a scolding-hot surface, rapidly bubbling, evaporating and leaving behind a pale white residue. Seemingly mechanical or functional, the viewer’s eye travels from its coiled plug towards the water’s source at the ceiling, and yet this pipe actually connects to nothing – an upright autonomous form.
Bones, 2017
Mild steel, mirror, chalk
Mild steel, mirror, chalk