Gallery Crash: Atmosphere in the Spectrum

"Blue Dream New Wave" by Leo Cohen.

Towards the end of last week, we found ourselves going along to a friend's girlfriend's art show at the Crypt Gallery in St Pancras Church. It was advertised to us as "free wine" but we were pleasantly surprised (by the quantity and the fact that they had vodka too...no, just kidding, by the art, sillies.)

The show was called "Atmosphere in the Spectrum" and claimed to have as its unifying force each artist's take on the concept of atmosphere. Besides that, the show was catholic: student artists as well as professionals, video installations besides paintings. Though of course some of the work was a bit, erm, "theoretical" -- take the piece made of cardboard and ostensibly referencing Foucault's acid trip at Zabriskie Point -- other pieces were more accomplished and seemed to mean more than just art-for-pretentious-art's sake.


Amy Brooks' "Grave Article" brought an appealing sense of humor to the show. The piece was the only one that seemed to directly address the surroundings, blending in so perfectly with the crypt's stacked tombstones and yet providing a clever contrast to the solemn atmosphere.

Other pieces were equally impressive: Sydney Southam's "Ice Cream," based around old 16mm footage of her father who committed suicide when she was young, was particularly notable. And the video installation by Patricia Delgado, our friend's girlfriend, was also fantastic -- eight one-minute films with voice-overs -- but asked for concentration, and suffered a bit from being in a room filled with free-wine-imbibing twentysomethings.

The best thing about being friends with artists (besides the late-night cheap-wine-fuelled overly-intellectualized conversations) is the opportunity to find out about private views (with cheap-wine-fuelled overly-intellectualized conversations), so stay tuned for more updates.