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Review Mar 28 2009 « | »
Double Feature at the James Taylor Gallery The sea in Hackney! One of the large spaces in the James Taylor Gallery has been flooded, and a......

Harry Williams

The sea in Hackney! One of the large spaces in the James Taylor Gallery has been flooded, and a wooden pier leads from the concrete shore to the centre of the water. Lit from above, the water is milky and opaque, slightly greenish, completely still.

A very effective installation; there is a studied sense of peace as you stand on the sloping garage floor and watch others walk along the planks to the light at the end. The pier is made from rough wood but seems sturdy enough, it looks like the weathered groynes on a South Coast beach. Yet this meditative pool is contained by an industrial setting, a pile of old tyres slouch into the water, and sandbags block off a garage door. Suddenly the milky water looks like industrial waste, and you feel stranded and a little threatened suspended there at the end of the walkway. All it would need is the sound of dripping water and you'd be in Tarkovsky's 'Zone'.

There is a good view of the scene through the eyes of an old lift as you make your way back to the first piece - two films shown inside a makeshift mini-cinema. The show is called 'Double Feature', but the films seem to be unconnected to the pier. In the first amateur actors act out a dialogue from John Updike's 'Rabbit, Run', and in the second the camera catches the view from a bus as it leaves New York.

Julia Crabtree and William Evans did the flooding, Jennifer Bailey the films.

Double Feature at James Taylor Gallery, 28 March - 5 April. Gallery open Thursday - Sunday 12-6pm. Click here to go to their website.

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