{"id":12553,"date":"2016-03-29T10:58:43","date_gmt":"2016-03-29T08:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/?p=12553"},"modified":"2022-11-17T09:26:41","modified_gmt":"2022-11-17T08:26:41","slug":"language-and-drug-consumers-meeting-in-london-michael-dean-jac-leirner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conceptualfinearts.com\/cfa\/2016\/03\/29\/language-and-drug-consumers-meeting-in-london-michael-dean-jac-leirner\/","title":{"rendered":"In between language and drugs: Michael Dean + Jac Leirner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Michael Dean at South London Gallery<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

To access Michael Dean\u2019s exhibition at the South London Gallery<\/a>, and Jac Leirner solo show at White Cube, one has to explore the labyrinth-like, domestic environment of the building to find a way in. Occupying the gallery\u2019s main space on the ground floor, Michael Dean blocked the regular entrance of the room with a voluminous white material, offering but a glimpse of the interior from the outside. From the inside, this sculptural prop acts like a mediator between the architecture and the group of works on show: its colour harmonises with the original features of this bright Victorian conversion whereas its formlessness points towards the artist\u2019s unmistakable style. Titled Sic Glyphs, the show contained a series of semi-abstract sculptures with a shared human scale, displayed invariably from the floor throughout the exhibition space. Making use of a lean set of materials such as concrete, coins or naked steel, the artist shaped each of these pieces uniquely, further populating the floor with small objects which seem to derive from the bigger sculptures. It somehow felt like being inside a saloon, a social gathering of odd beings where you make small talk with one character and soon move to the next for another quick chat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Michael
Michael Dean, Sic Glyphs, installation view at the South London Gallery, 2016. Courtesy the artist, Herald St, London, Mendes Wood DM, Sao Paulo, Supportico Lopez, Berlin. Photo Andy Keate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Sic\u2019 is a term widely used and misused in texts to indicate that a word was transcribed exactly as it was pronounced, often indicating some sort of typo. A \u2018glyph\u2019 in typography, is \u2018the specific shape, design, or representation of a character\u2019; or the qualities that make a given letter recognisable over different typesets. Thus Sic Glyphs seems an apt framework for objects that share a similar conceptual origin, scale and matter while being individually one of a kind. Michael Dean\u2019s longtime interest in language and typography \u2013 reportedly, he creates typefaces since his teenage years \u2013 was further evident in a series of stickers glued randomly around some of the room\u2019s various doors. Bearing different designs, they repeated the letters E H O R S exhaustively, most prominently forming the word SHORE but allowing myriad phonetic associations and variations, particularly to an anagram-driven mind. We attempted to leave through one of these doors, but were prevented to do so by an invigilator. As in a guessing game, it didn\u2019t offer a clue on where to go, but to avoid being reprimanded once more, we left by the same route we\u2019ve entered. Michael Dean\u2019s practice is idiosyncratic in that it is generous and mysterious at once, concealing as much as it reveals: you are encouraged to move and interpret objects freely \u2013 and often even to take elements from his exhibitions home \u2013 yet he will not guide you to the right door, nor share the codes that will allow the viewer to decipher his incomprehensible \u2013 albeit methodical, it seems \u2013 language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n