Christian Newby @ Transmission

A large-scale, intensely patterned marbled-ink drawing decorates a freestanding wall in Transmission’s basement space. It’s stunning and compelling, but the work – and your visual pleasure – do not go undisturbed: two screen-printed light fixtures are mounted on the wall, interrupting the swirling patterns.

Continuing his practice of constructing seemingly archaic spectacles from personalised histories, the black and white photographs in the 16mm projection look to be from the past. Some show photographic illustrations from old books, while others are less easily discernible. A shard of white light on black and a door peppered with bullet holes are reduced to formal compositions.

Initially, the varied subject matter of the images seems important, but in noticing the hand that holds the images to take the photo, or the edge of a desk, we are distanced from the film’s content. Instead of the image being simply the subject, we are also presented with the image as an object, a potential cultural or historic reference. It also draws attention to our own gaze. It is impossible to refrain from analysing the artist’s intentions as we watch. The objects or art works in the images – home interiors and lengths of metal piping – seem subordinate to the form of the film, or to a greater scheme of the artist’s.

Prompting these self-referential musings on theatrical and cinematic space is surely Newby’s intention. But the realisation that the film is made wholly of referents with perhaps no drama, no subject matter, at its centre is familiar and a little deflating. Such is the hard truth of many a work of art. [Jac Mantle]