A Walk Through H: Some recent cultural musings around Kingston Upon Hull (1/5) By Philip Wincolmlee-Barnes

(1/5), (2/5), (3/5), (4/5), (5/5).

Contemporary Art: either you're 'out' or you're 'in'. Either you 'get' the somewhat jaundiced, laconically ironic stance of much of this work - you know, of how we're living in a post modern world bereft of a single 'grand narrative' - or you remain nonplussed at the often obtuse outpourings of these 'so-called artists'. And many of them don't even have proper jobs (whatever one of those might be...). But you keep at it, no matter how disorientated if - like me - one has cultural pretensions (and - arguably - too much time on your hands). Being partial to red wine can also help, particularly on Opening Nights. And disorientation - or rather, a kind of cat-and-mouse guessing game - has been a staple artistic strategy since arch-Dadaist Marcel Duchamp began signing and exhibiting bicycle wheels and Parisian urinals.

For my sins (too numerous to list here) I am an artistic 'insider', albeit a frequently cynical one. My personality - cumbrous, to say the least - means that I often depart these cliquey soirees in something of an intellectual huff (which isn't quite as bad as kicking off outside a curry house on a Saturday evening, which I have never done). But it is still something of a relief that even in Hull - not widely regarded as being a cosmopolitan Mecca for the arts - there is often more than enough to gawp at, listen to and scratch your chin about. Perhaps it is the city's tendency for the insular, or that media whores can't pull themselves away from Soho bars, but one seldom reads - in sensible depth, at least - about some of the artistic curiosities that come the way of this mucky old port. Or maybe artists are just shit at advertising themselves and their wares.

Being a part of Hull's furniture, and also a sometimes productive writer (when, as ever, I can be bothered to get around to it), I thought it might be an interesting exercise to pretend to be a cultural critic and infiltrate some recent events whilst posing as a mere 'punter'. Being a man of inordinate leisure, I donned my best cravat, and tried not to get the shit kicked out of me by drunk townies as I investigated some of this summer's cultural offerings.

Manic Minor Robot Dreams was the Red Gallery's summer (July) exhibition. Newcastle artist James Johnson Perkins staged this rather slight, but thematically consistent show. I met him briefly at the opening and I gauged him to be a relatively young practitioner (unless he's just better groomed than I am - at times, not a difficult feat...).

This would explain his enthusiasm for growing up with 1980's paraphernalia - home computers, such as the Atari and the ZX81, Lego bricks, and American TV action shows such as 'Knight Rider'. All of which were fed into 'Robot Dreams'; with Lego bricks in particular being his prime medium in this and in other exhibitions of his. It was very 'boys and their toys' territory - a kind of less mature variant (in age, not content) of the narcissistic BBC motoring series 'Top Gear'. But for boys who stayed indoors a lot during their youth. In the first room one encountered a monstrous Lego model of a robot character - a kind of totemic figure or, possibly, a species of 'imaginary friend'. In room two we watched the robot perform silent dance routines, in blocky retro graphics, on a monitor. On Perkins' web site these gymnastic vignettes are performed to quirky pop music pertaining to the era. It wasn't clear why this musical element was dropped in the show - considered 'too frivolous', or simply too distracting, perhaps? In the third and final room was a large scale projection of a favourite episode of 'Knight Rider', digitised - perhaps as seen through a robot's eyes (if, properly speaking, they have any) - into cascading swathes of numbers, letters and keyboard characters.

Continued .... Next Page (2/5)

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