Eric Bainbridge : Late 90s Constructions

8 Aug-4 Oct 2014

Overview

'Late 90's Constructions' brings together a body of works made by Bainbridge in 1997 that specifically address the history of Modernism and the traditional material hierarchies of Modernist Sculpture. In these works Bainbridge employs ubiquitous 'low - grade' materials such as melamine faced chipboard and dental floss to reappraise a Formalist vocabulary. That a material can be 'second - hand' and in some way dirtied and devalued by its former use - yet be explored for its aesthetic potential nevertheless, sits at odds with the Modernist ideal of 'truth to materials' and the inevitable distillation of form and material towards a refined 'pure' essence. In contrast to this reductivist impetus Bainbridge emphasises the 'subordinate' conditions of temporal normality, liberating the autonomous Art object via the absurd patina of everyday life.