#danielle arnaud

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Exhibition Picks | 4 November 2014

Opening this week…

Polly Apfelbaum: Colour Sessions at Frith Street

Inspired by the drapery and coloured fabrics depicted in Renaissance and Baroque paintings, Polly Apfelbaum's series of monochrome fabric works are opening at Frith Street Gallery this week.

7 November – 20 December 2014

Oona Grimes: Chapter Two at Danielle Arnaud

Oona Grimes' series of large drawings exploring the conversational nature of the diptych, beginning as 'a book of protective spells or science fiction hieroglyphics'.

8 November – 14 December 2014

First Thursdays

150+ East London galleries come together on the first Thursday of every month to run free events, exhibitions, talks, workshops, and private views for a special late opening.

6 November 2014

Plus, a last chance to see...

Jeremy Evans: My left Hand Wants to Buy me a House at ASC

When artist Jeremy Evans temporarily injured his dominant right hand, he created these 100 text and image drawings with his less reliable left appendage. This resulting exhibition serves as a meditation on motivation, the value of art and Pascal's wager.

Last day: 7 November 2014 

Mark Hagen: A Parliament of Some Things at Almine Rech

This week is your last chance to see 'A Parliament of Some Things', a series of paintings by Mark Hagen. Hagen pushes black and white paint through lengths of rough burlap onto glass planes.

Last day: 8 November 2014

[discobb-blog]

David Cotterrell @ The London Art Fair

Last week, after an impromptu lunch time snow ball fight with the Ten Thousand Yen crew, I left the protective confines of Dalston to head to the 25th edition of the London Art Fair. In a few short hours I took in two talks, and discovered new and recent works from various British artists (my thanks to the tired gallerists who politely indulged my every query). 

David Cotterrell's  'Prototype II' at the Danielle Arnaud stand grabbed me as soon as I walked into the fair. Two .357 Magnum handguns with their muzzles pointed towards each other sat on an otherwise unassuming white plinth. Upon closer inspection, the piece revealed a complicated set of gears and cogs attached to both handguns. 

It immediately became clear that these weren't just two inactive guns placed opposite each other, these were two aggressive weapons, locked and loaded and ready to fire on each other for me, the viewer. 'Prototype II' was made in 1998, but feels just as poignant in this post-Sandy Hook (and Newton/Oikos University/Jared Lee Loughner) world. The artist's statement on the piece reads: 

Sharing more in common with Maillardet’s Automaton than Apple’s G4, Cotterrell’s Prototype II is a mechanical device of finely honed gears, cogs and wheels made by the artist in the London workshops of the Society of Model and Experimental Engineers. Driving a crank at painfully slow speed, the machine cocks the guns, the muzzles of which face directly into one another. The machine’s slipping pulleys continuously spin the chambers until the cocking mechanism traps the chamber in preparation for firing. A complete cycle involving the cocking and subsequent firing of one blank round into the partnered revolver takes 5 minutes. 

I watched the piece as it slowly clicked its way through a complete cycle. And even though I knew that there was absolutely no way the piece would blow up in my face, especially in the hyper-sterile environment of an art fair, I couldn't help but jump when one gun fired a blank directly into the muzzle of the other. 

Images via www.cotterrell.com