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PIE FIGHT
08/06/2005 - 15/07/2005

james esber, jane fine, danny rolph & grame todd.
       
 
AR Contemporary is pleased to present PIE FIGHT, a group exhibition of works by James Esber, Jane Fine, Danny Rolph & Grame Todd from 08 June to 15 July with a reception for the artists on Tuesday, 07 June at 7 pm.

...a great pie fight, a love story, and an explosion. At the end he gets the girl and winks. Order is restored. We are all in on the joke, but Chaplin (Charlie) has taken us somewhere new.

Mark O'Conner
Undiscovered Landscapes in Chaplin through Gamdrup


The works gathered for the group exhibition "Pie Fight" have the gaiety and spontaneity of a good old-fashioned July 4th custard pie, free-for-all. But there is more to a successful pie fight than merely tossing a couple of pies here and there. The artists work more like the movie or sit-com director. Just the perfect bit of mess and goo requires careful blocking and fine skill in the delivery of the fluid/solid substances of custard and paint. What seems random is clearly controlled. The free-for-all feeling is in fact an illusion.
Additionally, the initial chuckle and sensual pleasure is quickly replaced by a funny feeling that something is awry. The surface pleasures yield to violence. Once recognized, the toxicity, conflict and aggression of the pie fight (and the exhibited works) can not be ignored. Esber, Fine, Rolph and Todd are products of the television generation. Their way of processing visual information is related to the media construct which we all experience. Superficially beautiful, most of the information is in fact sinister. Messy, obsessive and sinister - "we've got a hit on our hands".
   
         
 
  Exhibition