CHARLES MASON
Structure and other anxieties

7 MAY - 20 JUNE 2010

VIEW WORKS

Dummy II, 2010
Perspex, concrete, galvanised steel and ceramic tiles
203 x 102 x 207 cm

NETTIE HORN is pleased to present a solo exhibition by the British artist Charles Mason featuring a new body of works in the form of sculptures, a wall drawing and photographs.

Inhabited by feelings of recognition, Charles Mason’s work is tinted by physical and psychological implications resulting from a reflexion on the surface and the structure. Following from his earlier sculptural practice, his work recalls a certain feeling of loss; a familiarity both generated and revealed by an affinity towards the ready-made. Initially using fragmented and partially broken and repaired objects, Mason has continued to introduce in his sculptural practice the use of construction materials such as foam, tiles, concrete and other scaffolding elements. Embodying both a formal and architectural spirit, these new components reconsider as well as reinforce the intrinsec playful expression of the artist’s work. Notions of equilibrium, weight and matter are essentiel components in Mason’s minimalist works; and where even the two-dimensional works take on a sculptural approach in the way that the objects represented are purely outlined within a space.
The use of translucent and dark grey Perspex panels notably offer a unique experience where a sense of disorientation paradoxically contributes to the idea of recognition and where a type of daydream-like experimentation questions the notion of physicality; the viewer becomes part of the work as he travels around it and becomes reflected in the Perspex through which a deformed perception of reality is offered. This sweet paradox is perpetuated through a reassuring feeling and an unnerving grace generated by the supportive and even prosthetic combination of shapes which seem to carry organic and visceral tones within their industrial nature.

In his research of a new formal vocabulary, Charles Mason’s work evolves naturally through the practices of drawing and photography and in which the economy of means as well as a subtle irony assume here their full meaning. Taking the shape of a repeatedly drawn oblong form in perspective, “Wall drawing (camera della morte) 2010” generates an optically shallow space through its positioning and orientation as a wall frieze. Reinforced by a palindromic phenomenon, the artificiality and disorientation formely present in Mason’s use of Perspex screens – where the light is reflected and absorbed into an enclosed chamber - is also echoed here in the drawing.

Charles Mason was born in 1962 in the UK. He lives and works in London.
Solo shows include, “Structure and other anxieties”, Cortex Athletico, Bordeaux, France (2009); “Intervention”, Campo Sant’ Agnese, with the 52nd Venice Biennale, Italy (2007); “Charles Mason”, Cortex Athletico, Bordeaux, France (2007); “Charles Mason”, Station, Phoenix Wharf, Bristol, UK (2004).
Group exhibitions include “Matériaux divers et autres bonnes nouvelles”, Cortex Athletico, Bordeaux, France (2010); “Line Journey”, Collyer Bristow Gallery, London (2010); “Parallax”, Fieldgate Gallery, London (2008); “Extérieur Jour: Charles Mason”, Masahide Otani, Vittorio Santoro, Immanence, Paris (2008)

For further information or purchase enquiries, please contact us on info@nettiehorn or 0208 980 1568

Charles Mason, Structure and other anxieties, Installation View

Dummy II, 2010
Perspex, concrete, galvanised steel and ceramic tiles
203 x 102 x 207 cm

Stepping Lightly, 2010
Concrete, rubber, ceramic tiles, steel and Perspex
Dimensions variable

Stepping Lightly (detail), 2010
Concrete, rubber, ceramic tiles, steel and Perspex
Dimensions variable

Crutch, 2010
Bronze
Edition of 9
87 x 53 x 56 cm

Charles Mason, Structure and other anxieties, Installation View

Wall drawing, 2007-2008
Digital print on paper
Edition of 3
120 x 170 cm Framed

Sans titre, 2009
Mirrored Perspex, metal clip
Edition of 9