Mike Pratt

Workplace is excited to present a solo exhibition of new paintings by Mike Pratt. Based upon documentation of a rug made by the Dada artist Hans Arp (1886 - 1966), these works have been silk-screen printed in collaboration with the artist's father, a printmaker, before being painted over by Pratt. The rasterised print maintains a tenuous connection to the historical image which, combined with the imperfections of the printing process, and beneath Pratt's painterly smears of intense, lucent colour, creates a composite of information.

Each work has been titled after a seemingly random object: Bucket, Dog, Pond, Lamp-post, Lobster, Volvo... Collectively they operate as if a hand of cards, a word association game, or a surreal taxonomy. Pratt's titles act in an associative way, opening up potential readings rather than closing down the work towards a specific meaning. The title functions as another layer accruing to a complex strata leading away from painting and towards sculpture. As a group, they maintain an equivalence, holding the room in a palpable, yet illogical, tension.