BEN WHEELE : ANTIQUITY BONK

10 Mar-15 Apr 2012

Overview

The awkward exhibition text displayed in a museum type fashion on the wall of the specially built entrance room is a subtle precursor to what is to follow. The second is the inevitable contact with the ornate gilded doorknob that lacks the cooling metallic temperature you might expect – this one, on closer inspection, is made from pasta. Once the door is opened and shut you are fully immersed in the artists sickly mindscape of decoration and pastiche, where a Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen approach to Rococo supplies a backdrop to his latest digital creations and three new sculptures. Wheeles’ disturbingly funny works indulge in a naivety that is ‘stuck’ on to the pieces without their consent and with themed sentiments that define a beautifully twisted logic.