'The Lonely House', 2008
Installation, metal office cupboards, cut and reformed
600cm x 183cm x 540cm
'The Lonely House' (detail), 2008
'The Lonely House' (detail), 2008
'The Lonely House' (detail), 2008
'The Lonely House (Room 101)', 2008
Collage, LP Album covers, second hand books
'The Lonely House (Reflection)', 2008
Collage, LP Album covers, second hand books
'The Lonely House (Sofa)', 2008
Collage, LP Album covers, second hand books
Laurence Kavanagh's work digs deep into the bygone golden era of film noir and sci-fi literature. His latest project, 'The Lonely House' (2008) is a six room installation based on scenes borrowed from a series of post-war romantic drama films: 'East Side, West Side' (1957), 'High Society (1956), 'Scotland Yard The Lonely House' (1957), 'Sayonara' (1957) and 'The Electric Horseman' (1979). What these have in common, besides questioning the social and cultural stigmas of the time, is that all of them at some point marked the last screening of the 'lost' cinemas of Archway in London. Together, they act more as a testimony to a collective unconscious for the North London neighborhood than referring directly to specific narratives, epoque or characters.
There are in fact no actors of any sort in this metal film set, which is made almost entirely out of recycled office furniture, and apart from the lonely horseman silhouette walking away in the distance, one is left to wonder where is to walk through or do with the reconstructed abandoned objects delicately placed around: a lampshade, a hairbrush, some window shutters, an empty pack of cigarette. We are slightly torn between knowing exactly what these objects are meant to do and yet not being quite sure that we haven't been using them for the wrong purpose all along.
This three dimensional space operates like a propped up conversion of a two-dimensional series of collages, where Kavanagh's piece originates. 'Room 101' is visual reconstruction of a Philip Johnson inspired glass room made of architectural photographs, fairy tale books and colour planes pasted on the back of found LP covers ('you need something to make something', the artist says). This Orwellian room where one might store their anger and bad memories speaks volumes on the kind of physical and emotional construct one might like to return to over and over...
'The Lonely House' was presented on the 10th floor of Hill House, 17 Highgate Hill in December 2008 and was supported by the Henry Moore Foundation. Laurence Kavanagh will be presenting a new body of work at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Spring 2009.
To view his profile page on Saatchi Online click here
Constance Gounod
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