Paulmart

Owl Faces and Cat Ringpieces
30th September - 31 October 2004

t1+2 Artspace is pleased to present Owl Faces and Cat Ringpieces, a new project by the collaborative duo Paulmart. Situated literally a few hundred yards from the edge of The City of London, t1+2 Artspace resides at the heart of an intensive, apparently relentless urban regeneration programme. Paulmart have taken the peculiarities of the building and the ongoing commercial development surrounding it as their starting point for this multilayered work. At two obscure sites within walking distance of t1+2 they have extensively refurbished small sections of the rough and ready fencing thrown up during Spitalfield's ongoing redevelopment, transforming the transitory and the contingent into something worthy of preservation and admiration. The complicated display mechanism they have assembled within the gallery complements, extends and re-presents this provocative, if somewhat pointless labour of love.

The no-nonsense construction of the mechanical display board contrasts sharply with the delicate cleaning and expensive veneering Paulmart have carried out outside the space. In making overtly clear the board's modus operandi the trickery and smugness of advertising is turned against itself. Functional and yet as absurd as the machines to be found in the works of Duchamp or of Raymond Roussel, this device receives but also scrambles the video record Paulmart have made of their nightly, illicit labours, raising questions about the work and its representation, brute functionality and aesthetic effect. Industrial cladding masks the walls of the space surrounding the projector and screen, bringing into the building what is conventionally exterior to it, whilst what might be described as Paulmart's generous micro-gentrification of the city takes place amongst the scrappy backstreets of an area whose "renovation" is in fact its destruction and dissolution. Owl Faces and Cat Ringpieces mirrors and reframes East London's glossy transmogrification, capturing for critical consideration this uncanny spasm of corporate profiteering and cynical rebranding of the living city.

Paulmart, Martin Russell and Paul Teigh have worked collaboratively since 2002. Current projects include An art/aid drop for Unrealised Projects.Recent shows include a solo exhibition at MOT(March 2004,Barip) and a performance at freedom fries in Rotherhithe.