Non-sense

By Andrew Frost

There’s a blurry black and white photograph on a wall at one end of the room. On an adjacent wall a small digital photo frame screens security camera footage of a guy stuck in a lift. Next to it is a “close-door” button, presumably taken from the lift, mounted to the wall. And on a large blue canvas a bunch of plastic grapes are stuck to its centre.

Luckily, Dara Gill’s exhibition Non-sense comes with a room sheet and some explanatory text: without it, this minimal, immaculate show is a strange riddle – but with it things fall into place. “Nicholas White was trapped in a lift for 41 hours,” writes Gill of the video work. “Until recently, it was common that elevator close-door buttons to be non-functioning”. Of the large photo Gill explains, “A camera set to take multiple exposures was thrown from a rock cliff, recording its descent and demise. This photograph is from the final exposure on the roll.”

Gill’s exploration of states of anxiety is, in this show, both straightforward and elegant, but filled with a mysterious absence. What we take for granted – our sense of personal safety, our decisions and choices – are all that stands between us and a universe of sorrow. Gill’s humour lightens the mood but there is a message here: Beware – appearances may be deceptive.

Until October 6

Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Waterloo