RODEO Istanbul

April 5 – May 26, 2012

Ian Law

Make Sure

Is that what you call a human relationship? You and grandpa there?

Yes, Mr Shannon, yes I do. We make a home for each other my grandfather and I. I don’t mean a regular home because I don’t regard a home as a place, a building, bricks, wood, stone. I think of a home as something two people have between them, in which each can nest, rest, live in emotionally speaking. Does that make any sense to you Mr Shannon?

The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams

The first exhibition of Ian Law (b.1984, Isle of Wight), takes place at home. This apartment has been the ground of hospitality of almost every artist the gallery has worked with and shown and is a space of production, negotiation as well as entertainment and rest. The nature of Law’s practice gives space for trying out other frameworks of display; other than that of the white cube or the cleaning of an apartment in order to turn it to a neat gallery space.The work unravels itself in each location it inhabits and elements of previous exhibitions take new roles, become new works in the present. Some works keep their previous qualities but take new shapes. Adjustment and adaptation are survival necessities. make sure is a group of works that is made with this home in mind. The abstraction of it, any home, becomes a space between two people. The space between. What are the boundaries between two people? What is it that defines friendship? Paintings of closed mouths suggest an act of listening to the friend, are repeated in each room, as a reminder but also as a path, a diagram in shaping a relationship. In a home situation the viewer becomes the friend. A removed bird nest that became the home for various couples of Istanbul’s laughing doves, created by one first then inhabited by a second; an unsuccessful second to keep her small ones alive. The nest becomes a painting, a colour study in memoriam. Next to it the door that Law removed to fit the painting diptych in the opposite room becomes a sculpture that is dressed by canvas brought to the flat for use during the installation. The sofa is covered by ‘Pal’; a work shown folded upon the floor of Plan B gallery last summer in Berlin. ‘Pal’ is hovering in the exhibition and becomes the fabric for people to sit on. The paper pulp trays create dynamics between two forms; a container and a work. A previous painting ‘Second space, reiterate’ becomes the model for a new work, possibly a space open for the viewer’s suggestions. The pulp trays, works that Law took home to dry and have been lived with in his room (each tray taking about two weeks to dry) have passed through various stages, blurring their role as works and functional objects at the same time. Law’s voice is becoming a guide, a suggested direction in this visit and the view of the diptych painting through the windows.

Ian Law, run off, residual water, paper dye, baking powder, adhesive in plastic bag, 2012

Ian Law, run off, residual water, paper dye, baking powder, adhesive in plastic bag, 2012

Ian Law, Documents of second space, reiterate (2011), prototype trays; paper pulp, adhesive, baking powder, 2012

Ian Law, Documents of second space, reiterate (2011), prototype trays; paper pulp, adhesive, baking powder, 2012

Ian Law, Friend, listening, water-based screen printing ink on canvas, 30.5 x 40.5 cm (12 x 16 in), 2012. Installation view, Make Sure, Rodeo, Istanbul, 2012

Ian Law, Friend, listening, water-based screen printing ink on canvas, 30.5 x 40.5 cm (12 x 16 in), 2012. Installation view, Make Sure, Rodeo, Istanbul, 2012

Ian Law, Pal, oil on plastic sheeting, acrylic and oil residue on cotton polyester, dimensions variable, 2011. Installation view, Make Sure, Rodeo, Istanbul, 2012

Ian Law, Pal, oil on plastic sheeting, acrylic and oil residue on cotton polyester, dimensions variable, 2011. Installation view, Make Sure, Rodeo, Istanbul, 2012

Ian Law, Wall painting over door, emulsion on canvas, door and fixings, 243 x 84 x 17 cm (95 5/8 x 33 1/8 x 6 3/4 in), 2012

Ian Law, Wall painting over door, emulsion on canvas, door and fixings, 243 x 84 x 17 cm (95 5/8 x 33 1/8 x 6 3/4 in), 2012

Ian Law, Friend, listening, water-based screen printing ink on canvas, 30,5 x 40,5 cm (12 x 16 in), 2012

Ian Law, Friend, listening, water-based screen printing ink on canvas, 30,5 x 40,5 cm (12 x 16 in), 2012