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Review Apr 28 2009 « | »
AM BRUNO at IMT Reverential silence punctuated by muted conversation and hushed mingling greeted visitors last Saturday at the IMT Gallery. White......

Josie Breese

Reverential silence punctuated by muted conversation and hushed mingling greeted visitors last Saturday at the IMT Gallery. White gloved hands hesitantly peeled apart pages, untied ribbons, unfurled scrolls and pried open boxes and envelopes. Growing numbers crowded around a table to peer at the 'book art form' produced by the alliance AM BRUNO, composed of 24 Central Saint Martin's MA fine art graduates.

Soon the queue for gloves grew impatient and books changed hands, reticence replaced with enthusiasm. Initial viewing confusion of how and whether to approach the works seemed to raise the central ambiguity of the event.

Left unresolved by the overall title of 'Between Gallery and Bookshop', the show did not define the medium but instead offered a consideration of the relationship between visual art and books. There was no express statement or explanation of the exact classification of these projects which spanned delicate loose-leaved bundles to a DIY exhibition in a box to torn canvas reconfigured into a 3D 'book' block bound with string and wax. Skilled draughtsmanship and extensive cartoons challenged the division between illustration and artwork.

Penny Matheson's poignant short stories operated with a gentle humour similar to Sophie Loss's irregular collections of strands or threads, opened with the only phrase of the book: 'Francesca's first husband was an inept lover so she hung his photo over her second matrimonial bed'.

Refusal to categorise the media on display necessitated an exploratory venture through minimal, if non-existent curation. This insistent lack could have been perceived as encouragement of subjective engagement with works. However, at first the behaviour of those approaching the works suggested otherwise. The absence of information and instruction could have been regarded as a careless oversight, or worse, disregard for the viewer. Nevertheless, navigation around the table proceeded at a personal pace, initially guided by the necessity of judging the books by their covers.

'Between Gallery and Bookshop' was organised by IMT Gallery and AM BRUNO on Saturday 25th April. For more information see {this website}.

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