Exhibition view: Everything is Black and White, John Wood and Paul Harrison, Galeria Vera Cortês, 2021
John Wood and Paul Harrison have been working together for more than 30 years. Although they acknowledge that they – and their works – are now ‘a bit middle-aged’, their output still demonstrates a remarkable freshness. This is due in part to the conversational directness and frank tone of their works. It is also a factor of the stripped-back shapes and reduced colour palettes they use. Beyond this, the artists have a knack of whittling down philosophical and conceptual conceits and conundrums to the barest minimum, so that they speak for themselves without any need for explanation. What others might devote paragraphs, nay chapters to, Wood and Harrison deliver in a single paradoxical art situation: a painted text piece that firmly contradicts itself; a pair of shelves hung face-to-face and so close they cancel out each other’s utility; a tilted painting that is undeniably both crooked and straight. What you see is what you get, but you do have to look.
Exhibition view: Everything is Black and White, John Wood and Paul Harrison, Galeria Vera Cortês, 2021
John Wood and Paul Harrison, Storage solutions (shelf), 2019. Plywood with melamine, shelf brackets. 48 x 100 x 20 cm. Unique
Exhibition view: Everything is Black and White, John Wood and Paul Harrison, Galeria Vera Cortês, 2021
John Wood and Paul Harrison, 3 paint trays, 2019. Paint trays, oil paint. 70 x 30 x 40 cm (each). Unique
Exhibition view: Everything is Black and White, John Wood and Paul Harrison, Galeria Vera Cortês, 2021
John Wood and Paul Harrison, Sheep Entertainment, 2012. 102 cast toy sheep. Variable dimensions. Uniqu
John Wood and Paul Harrison, This is a Projection (projector version), 2019. Slide projector, 35 mm slides. Variable dimensions. Ed. 3 + 2 AP
John Wood and Paul Harrison, This is a Projection (projector version), 2019. Slide projector, 35 mm slides. Variable dimensions. Ed. 3 + 2 AP
Exhibition view: Everything is Black and White, John Wood and Paul Harrison, Galeria Vera Cortês, 2021
Exhibition view: Everything is Black and White, John Wood and Paul Harrison, Galeria Vera Cortês, 2021
Wood and Harrison’s games with language and gesture often combine deftness and dumbness in such a skilful way that you might not notice what is really at stake. We can discuss whether a neon sign spelling out the word ‘WALL’ hung on the wall is an inane tautology, but while we do that the world continues to convulse around other, more sinister language games. Their works use the innate rhythmic and performative properties of language: ‘A Large Piece of Paper on my Wall’ is both a work on paper and a statement asserting its own physicality and even, perhaps, its positionality. Exploiting the slippage of categories that can occur when spoken language is transcribed into text, the artists invite us to play as part of our training for reading the real world. Is it just a white painting or ‘A Quiet Word’? It’s both, providing you can see things from more than one point of view.
John Wood and Paul Harrison, White fire extinguisher, 2018. Fire extinguisher, oil paint. 60 x 20 x 20 cm. Unique
John Wood and Paul Harrison, White fire extinguisher, 2018 (detail). Fire extinguisher, oil paint. 60 x 20 x 20 cm. Unique
John Wood and Paul Harrison, Ream, 2017. 500 pieces of paper, 500 inkjet photographs. 6 x 29.7 x 21 cm. Ed. 10 + 2 AP
Exhibition view: Everything is Black and White, John Wood and Paul Harrison, Galeria Vera Cortês, 2021
John Wood and Paul Harrison, Storage solutions (brackets), 2018. 10 shelf brackets. 36 x 5 x 3 cm. Ed. 10 + 2
Exhibition view: Everything is Black and White, John Wood and Paul Harrison, Galeria Vera Cortês, 2021
John Wood and Paul Harrison, Demo Tape, 2020 (still). HD 4KVideo. 8’57’’, loop. Ed. 5 + 2 AP
John Wood and Paul Harrison, Demo Tape, 2020 (still). HD 4KVideo. 8’57’’, loop. Ed. 5 + 2 AP
Exhibition view: Everything is Black and White, John Wood and Paul Harrison, Galeria Vera Cortês, 2021
Exhibition view: Everything is Black and White, John Wood and Paul Harrison, Galeria Vera Cortês, 2021
John Wood and Paul Harrison, Light/Switch, 2021. Oil paint on plywood panel. 30,5 x 30,5 cm. Series of 10 unique pieces
John Wood and Paul Harrison, A large piece of paper on my wall, 2020. Digital print. 84,1 x 59,4 cm. Unlimited edition
The fact that Wood and Harrison’s work regularly elicits laughter may be its most subversive aspect. Laughter in the contemporary art space violates the etiquette and cool power of modern art, which prefers hushed awe to guffaws. A sculpture consisting of a fire extinguisher coated in white oil paint hangs unobtrusive in the corner, available for misting out any unsolicited hysterics. The truth is that we don’t have to know anything special to laugh at this exhibition of contemporary art. Nothing needs to be explained for the work to do its work on us, to transform us in the most imperceptible of ways before we return to our daily lives.
John Wood and Paul Harrison, This is a list of words, 2020. Digital print. 84,1 x 59,4 cm. Unlimited edition
John Wood and Paul Harrison, You are reading these words, 2020. Digital print. 84,1 x 59,4 cm. Unlimited edition
John Wood and Paul Harrison, You will forget these words, 2020. Digital print. 84,1 x 59,4 cm. Unlimited edition
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