Nothing to be Done
New Paintings by Ben Deakin
Tannery Arts Limited
Brunswick Wharf
55 Laburnum Street
London E2 8BD
E: info@tanneryarts.org.uk
T: 020 7729 8008
Private View 30th June 2010, 6-8pm
1st-3rd July 2010
12-6pm
"Nothing to be done" mutters Estragon, in the opening line to Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot". Despite sounding like a statement of despair, Beckett's characters have been said to explore the notion of "nothing" as a thing to be done. The phrase is repeated as the lives of Vladimir and Estragon unfold, and we become increasingly aware that "nothing" is a state of existence contrived by the repetition of mundane and obsessive actions by the pair.
Like Beckett's characters, the artist strives to create order out of habits, processes and practice. Most commonly associated with painting, this desire to elicit meaning from the mundane similarly comes with no guarantee of success. In spite of this the artist continues, to paraphrase Beckett, to resume the struggle and "Nothing to be done" becomes a call to arms.
The paintings in this exhibition vary in handling and style, often featuring ephemeral or transient interventions within landscapes which could be nowhere as much as anywhere. They might equally be separated into fast paintings and slow paintings, fluid gestural works sitting alongside highly detailed ones. This offers a view into a process where contemplation, indecision, playfulness and bloodyminded-ness play equal part. Every painting is a document of its own creation, a process in which nothing, is to be done.
Getting There:
Directions as for The Drawing Room:
Old St underground and then bus routes 55 up Hackney Road ( bus stop after the Bingo Hall), or 243 up Kingsland Road (bus stop St Leonards Hospital).
Liverpool St underground then bus routes 242, 149, 67 up Kingsland Road, or 26 up Hackney Road
For Further details please visit: http://www.drawingroom.org.uk/Contact.htm
More info at www.bendeakin.com
