'Them & Those', 2008
Umbrellas, Tea Pots, Black Gloss Paint
Size Variable
'More Than Naked', 2008
Black Brogue Shoes, Red Spray Paint, Umbrella Handles
Size Variable
'P.Y.T', 2009
Black Penny Loafer Shoes, White Ribbon, Latex Ballons
Size Variable
Appau Junior Boakye-Yiadom takes the readymade as his starting point but brings it into performative play, often with paint or liquid such as plaster or spray paint. He sets up situations of everyday objects that are activated during a brief performance; the aftermath and the photographic or filmed record of it all form part of the work.
In the case of 'Them and Those' (2008), two white teapots hang from two wooden umbrella handles; the umbrellas become hooks and the teapots drainpipes, dripping thick black paint onto the floor until empty, leaving a painting to dry on the floor beneath. In the 'Marcel Process' (2009), a short video, a bright red moulded jelly sits on a porcelain plate beneath a drain pipe, as if it was just delivered, fully formed, from that incongruous metal orifice. Little happens until a downpour of creamy liquid splutters from the pipe, gradually covering it completely, like a tea party gone awry. The liquid is in fact plaster, which sets around the jelly - itself a cast, which creates another mould.
In 'More than Naked' (2008), the artist set up a small room where he positioned a pair of smart, polished brogues on the floor at a distance from two cans of spray paint. Two wooden umbrella handles curve above the spray cans like fingers which have at some point put pressure on the nozzles, spraying the shoes until the cans are empty and the shoes are entirely red, leaving a dysfunctional scene akin to a Dada assemblage. The title is owing to Jean Baudrillard's 'The System of Objects' text in which he describes red as a 'loud colour which strikes the eye. If you wear a red suit, you are more than naked - you become a pure object with no inward reality'. In many of his works, Boakye-Yiadom explores the notion of objectivity but paradoxically and with comic timing, through his attempts to give character and life to the objects he composes. In the case of 'P.Y.T' (2009) a pair of black penny loafers sit forward on their toes, held taut by bunches of helium balloons. By simply using a pair of shoes and insinuating a gesture, the artist re-stages a classic pop dance move and cleverly creates a portrait of Michael Jackson.
Many of these works form part of Boakye-Yiadom's recent show 'Backwash' held earlier this year at Gallery Primo Alonso in London (5 Feb - 1 March, 2009) and were the culmination of a two-month residency at the gallery which he then exhibited in. As a result there's an enjoyable sense of experimentation that usually takes place in the studio but which the artist reveals and can be witnessed by the elegant and curious remains of the small performances he staged.
Appau Junior Boakye-Yiadom was born and lives in London. He completed his BFA at Winchester School of Art and graduated from the Royal Academy in 2008.
To see more of his work registered on Saatchi Online click here.
His video 'Backwash' can be seen here.
Leigh Robb
1. Jean Baudrillard, The System of Objects, J. Benedict (Trans), Verso Books, London and New York, 2005 (1968), p. 31.
After working at the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Leigh Robb is now based in London as Associate Director at Thomas Dane Gallery.
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