Anne Hardy art review: A rough-hewn charm
Minimalist sculpture which, though not extraordinary, provides moments of atmosphere
Anne Hardy’s ‘active environment’ of sculpture partly consists of a large, floor-based rectangle of breeze blocks, upon and around which are deposited various found objects (and casts from those objects) that suggest the presence of waif-like, semi-human forms. The most striking of these is compiled from materials including a shop dummy’s hands, a raincoat and a kind of amphibian tail of flattened cans.
These works were composed partly on a residency in Marfa, Texas, a place associated with minimalist sculptor Donald Judd. Some elements of the sculptural form, like the big flat concrete rectangle, seem to allude to Judd’s work. Collectively entitled ‘Feelings’, the whole thing might in part be an emotion and fantasy-led riposte to Judd’s cool formalism.
There is nothing here to set the world on fire exactly (with feelings or anything else) though some of the small assemblages at the mezzanine gallery level have a rough-hewn charm, and the weather-data based soundtrack and dimming and rising lights add a nice twist of atmosphere.
Anne Hardy, Talbot Rice Gallery, until 27 September.