The first Folkestone Triennial has kicked off the summer art festival season and all the papers are full of Mark Wallinger's pebbles and Tracey Emin's tiny bronze baby clothes. Following in its wake is the Whitstable Biennale, which, although it cannot boast the big names, does have imagined versions of Peter Cushing's films, a staging of the credits of the Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and guerrilla knitting. London's Transition Gallery returns the favour by bringing a bucket load of seaside pleasures home to Hackney.
It's great that these summer festivals are at the seaside. Art and ice cream are always a good combination and anything that gets more people to visit the British seaside must be good news. But interestingly the seaside also seems to be on the mind of artists working in the city.
More theatrical re-enactment than social documentary, 'Fan Fair' at east London's Transition Gallery, imagines a host of seaside sensations alongside their distinctly darker underbelly. The first sight to greet you as you enter the gallery is Doug Jones' spectacularly over embellished, seven-foot helterskelter on wheels, resplendent with glitter ball, flashing lights and a 'This Structure is Condemned' sign. Next to this this a string of bunting turns out to be a series of hankies embroidered with messages from massage parlours by Tabitha Moses.
The folksy-decorated Argos garden shed in the corner of the gallery houses Cathy Lomax's Tarot reading experience, which questions the curious contemporary longing for a need to engage with belief systems. Walking into the hut you are faced by Madame Sosostris a screen psychic who invites you to have your cards read. Although the reading is obviously pre-recorded visitors get hooked on the idea that their final card is some kind of real message. Even the gallery attendants who are aware that this is only make-believe are sneaking in to try and get a 'better' outcome.
The proceedings are rounded off by Matt Rowe's 'Salvation', a golden, glass fibre version of an old-fashioned divers helmet, which adds a touch of claustrophobic creepiness to the proceedings. And Dominic Allen who has cast his father's walking stick in rock both reminding and warning us that despite all the contemporary whirly gigging the seaside can still be the place where artists go to retire!
Fan Fair
Until 13 July
Transition Gallery
Unit 25a Regent Studios
London E8
T: +44 (0)207 254 4202
Notes for Editors
Fan Fair runs until 13th July 2008.
Transition Gallery is open from Friday-Sunday 12-6pm.
Admission is free.
Nearest tube station is Bethnal Green
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