REVIEWS MARTIN WESTWOOD
ce
, 2007, upholstered table, toughened glass, lead, paper,
Death Spiral Converted aluminium, photocopy, lithograph, perforated paper leaf, shredded offi stationery, 144 x 144 x 58 cm. Courtesy The Approach, London
MARTIN Incorporating plotter-print, photocopy paper and shredded of_f_i ce stationery, map pins, brass-plated cocktail sticks, pebbles and leaves cast in lead, Martin Westwood’s work
WESTWOOD leans heavily on the commonplace ephemera of corporate identity while simultaneously drawing out aspects of day-to-day transactions in which subjectivity, escapism and even
THE APPROACH, LONDON romance play an equal, (un)intended role. Westwood returns to a now well-established
4 MARCH – 15 APRIL theme in his work, taking his subject matter from fi nancial districts, business parks or any
of_f_i ce anywhere in the world.
At the centre of his practice is that unique mixture of utopian confi dence, capitalist liberation theology, subjective annihilation
and communal despair endemic to corporate visual culture and corporate spaces. Combining fi ve large collage-assemblages, two table
sculptures and three cylindrical, extractor-fan-like barrel sculptures, this small exhibition of works, all created in 2007, is impressive in its
range and technical complexity. Two wall pieces in particular, Horse Stalked and Creeping Tender Of_f ered, utilise the familiar, 1970s-ish
iconography of corporate training manuals to evoke idealised images of consultation and communication. As if to emphasise and undermine
the message, Westwood has incorporated into the background depictions of the twenty-fi rst century’s most celebrated scion/bane – the
call-centre operator. In fact they’re everywhere; no more deservedly, one might think, than trapped in the gleaming, razor-sharp grilles of
Put Cell Purity (A), (B) and (C), like so much human detritus, their potential long-since exhausted.
These works go some way beyond mere evocation of the physical environment of the institutions they describe by adopting and
remodelling that same material aesthetic: government-issue brown and ledger-grey carpet-tile upholstery abounds, as do walnut frames
evocative of the boardroom and conference hall. In Horizon Returns, a cityscape is overlaid with punched-out sections of paper reminiscent
of time cards or binary code, while Call Date employs what could well be old-fashioned ticker-tape stock-market printouts to recreate high-
rise steel-and-glass corporate architecture. In several pieces this corporate aesthetic is juxtaposed with an unruly organicism: the pebbles
and leaves that form one of the artist’s constant motifs.
Westwood’s work is nothing if not intelligent, ludic and visually compelling. Now, as in previous works, he is able to give attention
and release to the apparently contradictory impulses operating within the corporate world, and invoke the perennial nature-versus-culture
dichotomy. There is also, however, a sense of an engagement in a rather dated, slightly banal Marcusian critique of consumerist culture as a
whole – although this is perhaps a strategic play on the visual languages and the interactions Westwood investigates. Similarly, by avoiding
entering into a more incisive discourse with his subject matter, Westwood might be accused of sidestepping the real issues at stake. It is not
always clear, therefore, if the slight dissatisfaction one feels when looking at these works points towards a more genuinely problematic absence
in Westwood’s practice or whether such criticisms are themselves just a product of his subtle, deliberately contrary aesthetic. Luke Heighton
one.lintwo.linnine.lin ARTREVIEW
p123-137 Reviews AR May07.indd 129 28/3/07 05:35:44
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