NOBLE AND WEBSTER artist's work  |  biography  |  articles  |  other resources

Articles about Tim Noble and Sue Webster

Tim Noble and Sue Webster

"Tim Noble, born in Stroud, England, 1966 Sue Webster, born in Leicester, England, 1967

Tim Noble and Sue Webster are united by their fascination with the mechanics of the media and advertising industries, and by the notion of the young British artist as celebrity. They employ a wide variety of visual styles, combining and confusing the spectacular and the mundane in a manner best described as consistently inconsistent. Echoing Public Enemy producer Hank Shocklee's description of the group's output as 'music's worst nightmare', Webster describes her work with Noble as 'your worst nightmare of what art can be'. Certainly the duo have little regard for conventional notions of good taste, mining the aesthetics of the fairground tattoo and the Las Vegas light show, the shopping mall and the rubbish dump.

Noble and Webster had their first two-person exhibition at the Independent Art Space, London in 1996. Its title, 'British Rubbish', made clear the pair's determination to tackle head on the stereotypes and hyperbole generated by and around the 'Sensation' generation of young British artists collected by Charles Saatchi. They set out to test the boundaries of the club to which they nominally belonged, questioning the lazy nationalistic and self-congratulatory attitudes upon which it was constructed. In their 1994 fly-poster, The Simple Solution, Noble and Webster had collaged their own faces onto the trademark besuited bodies of Gilbert and George, grandes dames of the British artworld. 'British Rubbish' displayed the same irreverent spirit but, in the wake of much-reported survey exhibitions such as 'Brilliant: New Art from London' at the Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis, took the critique a stage further. Read the entire article http://www.eyestorm.com

Tim Noble and Sue Webster by Mark Harris

This show of well-conceived sculptures and installations using computer-sequenced electric lights probably came as a surprise to viewers acclimatized to the tacky esthetics and low-grade materials previously relished by London misbehavers, Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Only last year they were introducing themselves in their "British Rubbish" show at the Independent Art Space as "The Shit and the Cunt," flaunting scatological art jokes and the fabricating abilities of glue-sniffing adolescents. As the visitor moved through this year's show, which included one major piece on each of the gallery's three floors, there was a cumulative theatrical effect. The first work encountered, Toxic Schizophrenia, was a wall structure of flashing light bulbs which re-created the classic tattoo design of a heart pierced by a dagger. Sophisticated light sequencing made for a mesmerizing display of alternating colors that depicted blood draining from the heart. The work was inspired by the Blackpool illuminations, an end-of-summer ritual in which the traditionally working-class seaside resort of Blackpool comes alive with flashing lights celebrated for their unashamed vulgarity and for being the closest thing in Britain to Las Vegas neon. Read the entire article http://www.findarticles.com

back to top

Copyright 2003-2009 © The Saatchi Gallery : London Contemporary Art Gallery