Contemporary art gallery von Bartha is set to host a very special exhibition by British artists John Wood and Paul Harrison. The idiosyncratic and often absurdist pop culture creations accomplished by the Bristol-based duo has labelled them the Laurel and Hardy of the art world.
Their latest installation, ‘Some Things Are Undesigned’, will showcase the full range of their abilities, from video and photography, to drawing and sculpture. The collection works old and new displays both the incredible scope and outlandish imagination of Wood and Harrison. The show presents a vast assortment of subject matters, ranging from a video of Harrison being the target of thirteen different shootings, demonstrating the pair’s knack for precision choreography and timing (13 Assassins), to the simple silliness of a tiny nub of pencil jammed inside a pencil sharpener (Pencil Sharpener). The exhibition will also include The Semi Automatic Painting Machine, which sees everyday objects (a clock, a rubber plant, a toy airplane) subject to the explosion of a spray-paint gun, intended to give new meanings to ideas of transformation and camouflage.
The duo have also been given free rein to re-imagine the von Barthe interior, transforming the 850m2 studio space into a complex maze of rooms constructed from cardboard walls with entrance gained through oversized and undersized doors.
The project will take place at the von Bartha gallery in Basel, Switzerland.