Range B by Richard Deacon.
Photograph: Dave Morgan/Lisson Gallery
There weren't many visitors to Richard Deacon's exhibition, Range, at the Lisson Gallery on a dreary Monday, and I spent a lot of time - probably too much time - there alone, writes Maxie Szalwinska.
One couple stopped outside the gallery window and delivered their verdict on the sculpture House Version ("giant steel hotdogs"), then walked on.
After an hour looking at Range A-G the series of hollowed-out ceramics covered in globs of gooey-looking transparent glaze started to seem alive and I began to feel queasy. All of which left me wondering which art works I could happily stare at all day.
According to Lisson's website, Range continues Deacon's "longstanding investigation of the boundaries between interior and exterior". Here's what the audience thought:
Isabelle, London: For me, Range A-G is to do with fascination and revulsion. From a distance the sculptures resemble glistening intestines. When you get up close, they look as though they've been spattered in spunk. Yuck.
Jonathan, St John's Wood: I find Deacon's stuff pretty inscrutable, but I enjoy its textures. Vincent is like an anvil made of elephant hide. The photographs upstairs are mundane. I think he's trying to get people to think about the atoms that make up landscapes, but his collages are more boring than peering down a microscope.
Ben Jones, 35, London: When I come to the Lisson gallery I often find myself more interested in the school building that's across the road than what's in the gallery itself, and that's happened to me today. I like Deacon's work, but I'm not sure I agree with the press release that each of his works is untypical. He's an artist with a distinctive style. The pieces Range A-G make me think about conceptualism, and repetitive geometric structures as opposed to the more organic structures you see in nature. The sculptures are a bit like uncooked meat, or doner kebabs dripping with fat. I'm quite interested by how ugly they are, but then the piece Ribbon Bow is really rather beautiful.
Richard Stonehouse, 33, London: You're instantly grabbed by the scale of House Version. You think of geometry, chemical elements and steel. He's showing us the molecular on a giant scale. And he's playing with scale: the tiny swirls on this large piece reduce it back down to nano-size. It has various facets. It's a continually changing cycle, which is the idea of life that's evoked in a lot of his work. I guess House Version is also to do with creativity, home, growing, and perhaps the family of life. The clay works [Range A-G] are interesting because there are these expressive, molecular structures appearing from bland, solid earthenware bases. But again, there's a very fine, gelatinous texture to the sculptures on top of the harsh, ceramic blocks. I guess he's trying to evoke growth from the earth.
