Andrew Cattanach

In Shiin, Jet Stream, White earphones Damien Roach has taken the art exhibition as his object. To compound this formalistic inclination further, Roach has isolated the object's component parts - space and time. But such apparent reductionism is misleading.

Despite his modernist tendency toward the object's self-referential state, throughout this busy exhibition full of whimsical ephemera, Roach employs a keen sense of humour that high modernism (Joyce excluded) deferred. What is more, Roach makes autonomous objects that he exhibits in the exhibition - the supposed object of the exhibition - thus undermining the premise in a striking feat of illogic.

What we are left with is a collection of interesting, autonomous works displayed in a spatially confusing and conceptually dubious manner. Encouragingly, however, throughout the duration of the exhibition, Roach will rearrange and modify the exhibits around a programme of events that are as fascinating as they are varied. Amongst other events Laura Mulvey will be screening her and Peter Wollen's film, Riddles of the Shinx.

Roach's interventions to the space are considerable. He has modified the floor, adding a water feature and a small stone garden, creating the ambiance of a slick, modernist pavilion. Dividing each room throughout are coloured Perspex screens hanging from the ceiling, disorientating the viewer and discolouring every surface. Throughout both floors he has installed five 'modular units' - white wooden structures, like domestic plinths - each containing a number of smaller works whose playfulness and honesty contrasts with the cramped and confusing nature of the space.

On one wall hangs a poster of a holiday destination showing a mountain reflected in a lake. The poster is hung upside down so that the mountain we see is the reflection and the reflection the mountain. Roach has given it the brilliant title of Untitled (truth), 2008. It simultaneously laughs at the absurdity of 'truth' and all its nuanced relativism, whilst mourning its loss.

On another wall Roach has playfully displayed a collection of vinyl records by various artists, all with the album name Reflections. Nearby, framed and hung on one of the inexplicable modular units, there is a single playing card, only the back of which we see. Entitled Think of a card, it again highlights the savage fissure between our thoughts and the world.

In this exhibition Roach is guilty of attempting too much. The conceptual framing of the exhibition is baffling and perhaps unnecessary. But although inconsistent at times, his work is otherwise excellent. Someone as good as he at titling should know that a few words are sometimes all you need to frame an interesting work. Not the abstract musings of a rabid modernist.