Michael Lisle-Taylor, 'Hanging from Your Daisy Chain', 2007
climbing frame, canvas, hemp, eyelets, steel
200 X 100CM
'Square Rig Restraint', 2007
Royal Navy tunic, canvas, fastenings, cord, steel, glass
174 x 70 x 51CM
After serving 13 years in the army Michael Lisle-Taylor decided to go to art school. He did his BA at Cheslea then went on to focus on sculpture at the Royal College of Art in London, graduating in 2006. His first solo show just opened in London, showcasing a body of work which encompasses sculpture, photography, video, and drawing.
For 'Tournament of the Dirty Nurse' (2006) Michael Lisle-Taylor manufactured an ornately embroidered boxing ring, then hauled it up a mountain piece by piece in order to reconstruct it at the summit. He subsequently recruited former colleagues to airlift the boxing ring. It dangled precariously through the sky and then landed in an anonymous UK airfield. The resulting video is both comic and brave, as if the mechanics of war have been raided by the artist.
'Hanging from your Daisy Chain', 2007, is a climbing frame corseted with sailing canvas and bolted with sharp fixings. This oddly seductive work is entirely non-functional - too fragile for its original purpose and a pointless enterprise somehow made meaningful.
Michael Lisle-Taylor's sculptural work exists both as relic - remains of an event, be it actual or imagined - and as thing in itself. The work is brutally honest, layered with meanings and with history. Carpenter, seamstress and strategist, Lisle-Taylor follows elaborate working processes, comparable to life in the army. The architecture of conditioning, its ceremony and manoeuvres, the spit and polish, the uniforms and drill. He describes his work as being about 'wonder, terror, and something comic too' - and above all 'the illogicality of the task is set.'
Michael Lisle-Taylor
Until 27 June
Madder 139
137-139 Whitecross Street
London
EC1Y 8JL
T: +44 (0)20 7490 3667
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