To link so many different styles, media and concerns under one unifying theme is, of course, a hefty task. And so with Threads, the ECA’s third-year exhibition, the exhibition aims not to find one all-fitting word – but to celebrate both the diversity and the connections between pieces of art.
The atmosphere and setup of the exhibition certainly celebrated diversity. Installed in the multi-layered Sculpture Court of the ECA, a tiered, open space, the exhibition took playfulness, exploration and fluidity as its focus. From the DJ deck to the streaming ribbons of varying colours tossed loose across the hall that guests could just pick up and throw at their leisure, the layout scorned the traditions of any carefully curated, sterile white gallery space.
On the ground floor were placed various interactive installation pieces. A clothing hanger full of clothes entitled “Objectifying Absence” gave a solid, physical reminder of how much a person leaves behind in their absence, as a slowly dripping congregation of circular ice cubes enacted a climate change ritual.
Along the sides of the gallery paintings explored themes ranging from female objectification, performance, male bonding. A cannily placed large portrait of a female bust obscured the neoclassical female sculpture, as if to reclaim a space of objectification.
And as if the broad and diverse range of artistic creation bursting from the walls and floors wasn’t enough, immersive performative art movements, with vibrant colours, extended limbs and flowing movements continually disrupted and shifted spaces, morphing between the viewers.
Overstimulating? Maybe! Did I sometimes lose the thread? Perhaps. But I would be thoroughly disheartened by anything less. Bright, invigorating, diverse, engaged, and exciting are precisely the words that one should hope to hear in reference to the work of young artists soon to be emerging from the College of Art. An inspiring reminder of the diversity of thought present at the university, untainted by institutional parochialism, and a hopeful look at the future of art.
Photograph by James Harvey