Drinks Reception @ Quartermile

Is contemporary art depressed? Is it feeling disheartened, unfulfilled and forlorn? Is something missing?

If the latest exhibition by ECA’s sculpture and intermedia students is anything to go by then the answer is a firm yes. One of the key elements present in many of the pieces appears to be a sense of loss or absence; a Plexiglas rectangle with a missing circle, a playpen devoid of children, a violently shattered tea party, an empty box. This melancholic artistic trend was also apparent at last year’s Venice Biennale which exhibited its fair share of broken homes and shattered dreams. However, art fans don’t despair just yet as Q1 also provides the odd touch of humour (a knitted white fox, complete with Fair Isle tail), and beauty (a ‘running man’ constructed using pieces of metallic material suspended in a grid formation – technically amazing and visually beautiful). Equally, of course, there is the banal and clichéd (an unimaginative Dali-esque torso, a line of rather pathetic costal photographs, and a series of Andy Goldsworthy inspired tree trunks to name but a few).

Among the most successful pieces are the ones that, whether intentionally or not, work best within the amazing space offered at the shiny, new Quartermile One. Giant electrical wire dream-catchers rise impressively through the middle of the gallery, and one of the polished floor tiles has been replaced with a square of soil, complete with tiny seedlings.

If one ignores the presence of a few too many self-important ‘installations’, what ECA’s students have produced is an exciting and thought provoking response to current art world trends.