Two South London Gallery Shows Explore Selfhood and Subcultures
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‘Two South London Gallery Shows Explore Selfhood and Subcultures’
1 October 2022
By Martha Elliott
Simeon Barclay: ‘In the Name of the Father‘
In the main building, Simeon Barclay’s work speaks about navigating space, in an exhibition that embodies the internal negotiations that occur when entering a new cultural environment. ‘It’s about saying, “I’m not what you say I am, I can make myself into who I want to be”,’ he explains.
A fibreglass rock, Pittu Pithu Pitoo, 2022, towers across the entrance to the gallery, a black rope is wrapped around the summit of the mass and connects to What you Make of it (trace), 2022 in the centre of the room, in which a tin bathtub looms our heads. The interconnected pieces seem comical, as though by entering the space we become part of a slapstick cartoon at risk of being flattened, but in real life the object imposes on our comfort, hanging uneasily above. The rope continues, tangled in pulleys across the ceiling and dropping down into a bucket filled with weights. There is an overwhelming urge to touch the rope to check how heavy the weights are, but ‘do not touch the artwork’ conventions intervene just in time. The urge strikes again with Higher Purchase, 2022. Eight doors span across the centre of the room, forcing a decision to be made on which door you choose to walk through.
Simeon Barclay, ‘In the Name of the Father’, 2022 at South London Gallery. Photography: Andy Stagg
Barclay encourages us to take note of our decisions, and it’s these moments of discomfort that anchor his creative vision. ‘The whole experience of life is navigating ideas and perceptions around yourself,’ he explains. The artist’s journey with creative identity and other people’s expectations is interspersed throughout the show. He recalls being revered by his aunts for wearing a suit made by his father, referenced in Knight (rats), 2022. ‘I realised fashion can be a buffer, an armour – something you can disappear in, but also that can reaffirm who you want to be.’
Childhood references are dappled around the room, Knight (rats), 2022, sees snakes of soft toys emerge from the legs of two identical suits and wind across the floor. Iceberg, 2022 comprises a stack of cages, boxes and huts, at the core of which is a marionette of Black man dressed in an outfit inspired by Elton John’s 1980 ‘Donald Duck’ costume. It’s childlike, playful, but less comfortable when you consider the ease at which the puppet’s movements can be manipulated by the strings attached to its limbs, and the plastic cage around it.
The shows are complex, each approaching parallel topics in opposing mediums. Barclay’s work eases us into connections between family and expectations through construction and metaphors, while Matić exposes us to a symbolic look into both their history and the everyday. Both artists use the differing spaces at South London Gallery to allow a considered display of their personal stories.
