Exhibition
Tic Tac Toe: James Viscardi, Aki Ilomaki , Shaun Doyle and Mally Mallinson - ASC Gallery
The curators Darren O’ Brien and Peter Flack present three sets of work by artists, James Viscardi, Aki Ilomaki and collaborators Shaun Doyle and Mally Mallinson. Chosen for their lightness and humour, the artists are at the same time perceived as offering more complex strategies than meet the eye. In a ludic spirit of fun, ASC bypasses the usual gallery eulogizing of its artists and seeks to challenge you, the art-going public, to be worthy opponents in a debate centred round the exhibition tic tac toe, a game dating back to Ancient Roman and Egyptian empires, drawing in the sand. James Viscardi’s work alludes to fragmentation, momentarily hinting at the modernist metaphor of depth but with an angsty, surreal twist. His work can be seen as a kind of caricature of pieces from the past but painted with immediacy in the cartoonish style redolent of Viscardi’s American childhood. Self-admittedly “childish” co-authors of subject-driven narratives, Shaun Doyle and Mally Mallinson “start with a concrete idea” but……“delight in confusion”. The workSouvenir shown in this exhibition is part of a series inspired by Pascal DesirMaisonneuve (1863-1934), a French artist whose work is considered to be Outsider Art. They describe him as “…rebellious of mind…making effigies from seashells which poked fun and ridiculed politicians and monarchs”. Aki Ilomaki’s work is meditative, mirroring the weight of expectation back to the viewer. He is highly selective with his means, the wash of colours: bright blue or black, a thin, sinuous neutral line bounding an expanse of orange or yellow. He doesn’t seek to represent, but instead conveys a languor which veers off into a wasteland of meaning.
