The first thing that struck me walking into this exhibition was the smell; the familiar but forgotten hum of Plasticine. Mondongo is a type of Argentine tripe stew, and this South American collective live up to their namesake by utilising a bizarre concoction of materials in their work. The primary material in this show is as the smell suggests, but feathers, shredded cloth and foodstuffs are thrown into the encrusted mix.

‘Familiar but forgotten’ actually describes the surreal dreamscapes on show here quite well, combining childlike memories with more a sinister edge. Each piece is made up of many thousands of tiny snakes or balls of vivid Plasticine, and the overall effect is disorientating, like Seurat on hallucinogens. The malleable materials also give the appearance of being on the move, or melting (more than once I saw a fellow gallery goer leaning in to try and get their bearings, although this may have been the free wine).

In keeping with the playschool materials, there is a unifying fairytale narrative to the exhibition. This is much more Grimm than Disney however, and so we see a rotting corpse and oil pipeline in the grounds of a pink turreted castle, or red riding hood contorted with face obscured and legs akimbo as a man in wolf mask watches on. This has the potential to be a bit twee and knowing, but it is done with a humour and vigour that somehow carries it.

I know Versailles. School textbooks, art galleries and movies have puffed out an image of gilt hallways, walls of mirrors and many, many miles of silk curtains. I nurture equally vivid stereotypes of the wigged prigs that once walked these hallways, carrying solid silver Armadas in their powdered curls - gambling and eating cake whilst the rest of France was, generally speaking, not. It is the epitome of the elaborate stage-set that was the Ancien Regime.

Polidori plays with this prominent symbol in Versailles, scratching the surface of the stage-set. At first glance, the rich colours, elaborate patterns and solid proportions of the prints make you feel like you are looking at one of the glossy oils that line the walls of the palace. Polidori allows his lens to be distracted however, and rather than looking straight into the sun (a painting of Louis XIV, Marie Antoinette’s mirror) he looks at the things going on around it. The photographs therefore juxtapose gilt frame with fire alarm, carved doorway with CCTV camera, silk-clad regal calf with smudgy fingerprinted wall.

This is the same treatment that he has given to other prominent symbolic spaces such as Chernobyl or New Orleans, places that have been looked at so hard and so directly that they have almost disappeared. Polidori’s more offbeat work can succeed in breathing fresh life in to staid landscapes.

His photography is at its most successful when most simplistic, and the standout pieces for me focused on the negative spaces between details (empty wall hangings, a Perspex curtain guard). Some of the photographs do feel over-thought however, and they lose something in their complexity. Mirrors reflecting mirrors or storage rooms of jumbled painted monarchs lying on their side become shots of ornate interiors rather than discoveries of surprising details.

Flowers Central is the perfect setting for this contemporary twist on old decadence. As I was leaving I passed an immaculately dressed lady in a vivid crimson-feathered hat posing in front of a perfectly matched crimson photograph whilst a man in NHS specs took pictures. I thought of powdered wigs. Plus ca change.

Robert Polidori Versailles – Transitional states shows from 19 November to 3 January at Flowers Central, 21 Cork Street. More information here.

JJVO

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