A Continuous Line of Dashes and Hyphens

When I first heard some time back that Alex was having this show I will not pretend to have felt anything other than excitement.

I have seen some of the previous version in the Dashes and Hyphens series. These were perfectly balanced, fascinating bits of work shown in thick, chunky black frames. Each dash and hyphen had been painstakingly cut from newspapers and stuck buffered one to the next to create an organic yet solid line. Each dash was different from the next. Each had its own height and depth of surrounding empty paper jutting into or onto the board it was mounted on.

So… this is what I was looking forward to seeing…

What I saw though was something completely different.

Gone were the frames, which, upon seeing this work, had clearly only served to constrain the flow of the dashes. Instead you were confronted with a horizon-high unfaltering continuation of the dashes and hyphens. This moved the work on from looking like a glimpse of a cityscape to being one.

But this does not come close to capturing the peacefulness and majesty that this work creates in the viewer. It conjured images of the best trip you had ever had in London walking along the Thames at night or the first time you saw the Manhattan sky line as the plane you are on banks for its landing.

But with its unwavering lines it not only looks like a city it sounds like one.

Each dash with its corresponding jutting expanse of paper, showing only the faintest glimpse of shadowy text from the opposing side of the paper, turns into a huge sound wave. Each pulse could be a scream from a car that passes or a laugh from a group of friends.

The added power that this gives to the work compels you to get lost in its eternal sweep around the stark bare white walls of the space.

A slice of something special that I would urge everyone to go and see.

The show runs from 17th-26th Feb '06

@  iO Gallery, 39 Sydney Street, Brighton

More:

• Alex's Artists & Makers Gallery (with images from the iO Gallery)