John Hurrell – 11 September, 2016

This curious show makes you think about the internal politics within dealer galleries and artists’ common affection for other artists exhibiting in the same premises - and represented by the same agent. Many of these works represent a sort of salute or wave from Rohan Wealleans to Kushana Bush and Patrick Lundberg, a vague mimicry (formal emulation) that is not appropriation or exploitative, but a kind of lovely inflection or pointed deviation from his usual practice.

Then there is the odd title. The word ‘sliver’ is a fascinating one, meaning an acutely angled shard or splinter, recontextualised here to perhaps suggest ‘shiver’, ‘slither’ or a mangled ‘silver’. There is also a serial killer movie (starring Sharon Stone) of the same name.

The show is funny because of Wealleans’ shrewd and obsessive resourcefulness. Nothing is wasted. You see several delicate framed paintings of groups of dancing figures that with their flatness and silhouettes seem to allude to Botticelli or Uccello. However these ‘Bush tributes’ are also covered with small pits, regularly placed pocks that make them look like the surfaces of a cheese grater. The tiny cones that he has removed from his rubbery slabs of paint (perhaps using a lino-cutting blade) he has hoarded and recycled in his ‘tip of a hat’ to Lundberg.

These diminutive sculptures have been made by glueing the tiny coloured offcuts (slivers) together in startling configurations. From a distance you would never notice them on a wall, but close up they are a bit reminiscent of icinged cake decorations or Christmas tree baubles, but oddly grotesque in their spikiness and intense colour. Though clearly indebted to Patrick, they are still very much Rohan, infused with his personality and working method of additive sculpture. These intriguing (and dare I say, fun?) works are also cheap. They won’t make him much silver.

John Hurrell

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