East End Academy , The Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 11 June – 29 August 2004

 

 

London’s East End. An area one hardly needs to introduce anymore. A magnet within the magnet, it attracts thousands of artists and art lovers. Its outbursts of creative energy made a success of the Whitechapel Open. After 6 years of silence, it is back again but under a different name: the East End Academy. A new name, a new formula; this year’s exhibition was tightly selected by Chris Ofili, Chantal Crousel and Niru Ratnam.  In charge of skimming through the 800 applications, they finally chose to present 22 artists.

 

With no particular theme in mind, the selectors opted for a subtle curatorial approach by suggesting two “ levels of reading.” So whilst on the ground floor the audience is confronted with works allegedly grounded in the reality of an “urban context”, the first floor ascends to the intellectual spheres of a “mental space”, an easy analogy for a discourse that is not entirely convincing since artworks by their very nature conjure up a “mental space”.  Most artworks play with the notions of the Real and the Imaginary or the Fake; In the Naughty Puppies (2003) series, Louise Brierley paints anthropomorphic characters in suburbia whose life seems devoted to the pleasure of the flesh. The realism of the environment contrasts with the fantastical characters. Skilfully executed in oil, their varnished finish bequeaths them with a timeless quality. Her paintings emanate a deadpan atmosphere that suggests something quite threatening.