Haddock and Chub Exhibition, Suspension, Exeter Phoenix, until April 8th
By Rose Cresswell
Exeter Phoenix is currently showcasing the work of Simon Haddock as the first instalment of Suspension, a major two-part exhibition that spans across its main ground floor gallery spaces.
His collaboration with artist Stuart Chubb has produced a series of large-scale installations which skilfully combine sculpture and painting that juxtapose and interweave the two polar worlds of nature and human construction.
Walking into Haddock’s exhibition, his paintings jump out from the white walls as if they were three-dimensional.
The acrid colours and vivid strokes frame the sharp angles and pivoting lines, creating an almost sculptural effect which calls out to a passer-by, making it impossible not to stop and take a look.
The paintings reflect the intriguing darkness of motorways, building sites and towering concrete modern masterpieces, framed by the often contrasting natural surroundings.
However, Haddock shows through the composition of his works that often the two contradictory universes of nature and human construction, which seem so instantly disjointed, provide stages for each other that embrace and enhance their individual beauty.
Within the exhibition one is immediately drawn towards Cadence, one of the larger pieces, which is striking and visually exciting.
Here, Haddock embeds sheer architectural spirals within a background of shocking acid green and deep urban grey to create an overwhelming menagerie of colours and artistic techniques that echo the works of artists such as Ackermann, whose work also experiments with the great discourse between modern architecture and the natural, more abstract, world.
Moving around the gallery reveals more subtle, but equally provoking, pieces, such as the calming tones of Harvest and harmonious movements of Picker, both of which explore the more delicate appearances of nature within the engineered framework of contemporary architecture.
Works such as Multi Story and Interchange develop the more urban aspects of the exhibition, showing the darker and more concrete elements of buildings by reflecting the high rise angular planes of what are often construed to be distasteful edifices.
These paintings frame the buildings that habitually fade into the background of day to day life and Haddock wonderfully picks out and enhances the beauty that flows out of them, also creating a more personal insight into what these constructions mean to him.
Glance likewise exudes this deeper perspective and evokes a plunging feeling not dissimilar to what one might feel when looking into an elevator shaft, terrifying but exhilarating.
Haddock’s works, collectively and aptly named Viewer, establish that nature frequently provides frames for modern developments, and vice versa.
They explicitly demonstrate that we should look at both nature and human construction separately within their contextual frames, which recurrently accentuate their unique attraction and allure.
He shows that the two worlds should not necessarily be interpreted as discordant, but that they are often reflective of each other and, in many cases, agreeable and inextricably linked.