‘Ed’ is curated by Simon Bendi and is on show at Egg cafe until March 19th 2006.
According to Simon “The theme to the show is ‘on me ed son’ and represents some of the insouciance of Liverpool art and diversity of networks around Liverpool. It is a show where the common notion of p.c. is deliberately accosted. All the artists in the show are men and have for one reason or another had their voices emasculated, this show gives a focus for the quotidian reality of men in todays culture.”
Will Curwen is a Liverpool photographer, his Head one and Head two look like sculptures of heads, they are actually plastic milk bottles turned upside-down. Will likes to use such flotsam or detritus in his work.
Edmund Piper has two large film stills, one of someone working in a porn shop but not looking too comfortable in his work. The other is in a burger bar. If you look up to the upstairs area you will see two sets of four poster-style portraits by Samuel Weisemann, all bold colours and influenced by Samuel’s East German roots.
Paul Finnan’s ‘Beginners Guide to Plastic Surgery’ as well as being a comment on the fact that more men are having ‘beauty’ treatment, relates to boxing with its blood and scabs. His ‘Confessional box’ I believe is a statement of his dislike for his catholic upbringing.
There is a minimal sculpture by Tommy McHugh (unusual for him). Just a simple, small head stuck onto a solid block of sandstone.
‘Heart’ is a painting by Adam Nankervis (Australia) from 1997 and relates to ‘Maledom’, he has a work here entitled ‘Bubbles’ and also appears in one of the ‘Head 3’ by Marko Stepanov from Latvia which consists of 3 double sided portraits, the face on one side and the back of the head on the other. They are suspended from the ceiling so they rotate slowly one way and the other.
Simon Bendi’s own works on display include two sets of small single-covered canvases entitled ‘City Head Buildings’ and ‘City Head Shores’. Both resemble a waterfront city scape with the buildings reflected in the water. If you look closely you will see that the buildings collection is textured similar to the surface of buildings but the shores series is more fluid or wavy.
Another of Simon’s works which may at first seem controversial, even distasteful, has four black and white pictures with black on white or white on black faces and the words ‘Black Racist Bastard’. The order of the words is important here. Simon is simply keen to remind us that, as there are undoubtedly White Racist Bastards, Blacks can be racist too.