Simon Patterson is one of the most consistently interesting of the generation of London-based artists who came to prominence in the 1990s. His paintings, wall drawings, installations and, more recently, films, twist and manipulate familiar codes of representation and understanding, and have put him at the forefront of British contemporary art.

The exhibition presents new work in the light of the artist’s consistently-developing practice. Patterson’s use of systems of classification, documentation, description and belief, his hijacking of pre-existing maps, charts, lists and other methods for the transcription and communication of data begin with ‘name paintings’ (1987) and the wall drawing The Last Supper Arranged According to the Sweeper Formation (Jesus Christ in Goal) (1990). These early works are joined by General Assembly (1994), which links the language of politics and sport in an impressive installation, part-typewriter, part-stadium seating; and by the artist’s best known work The Great Bear (1992). This often-reproduced work is a facsimile of the London Underground map, with the names of the lines replaced by those of engineers, Louis’, philosophers, explorers, planets, journalists, footballers, musicians, film actors, saints, Italian artists, sinologues and comedians.

These works set the scene for three major new projects: a film made for the Sydney Biennial in 2002 and shown here for the first time since its premiere, a second film and a new wall drawing made specially for this exhibition. These works occupy the artist’s familiar territory of comparison and confrontation, using systems of orientation to disorientate and open up, rather than close down, possibilities for doubt.

This exhibition is one half of a temporally and spatially separated whole, the other half of which will be at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham from 8 June.

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Collection Artist(s)

Glossary

  • Contemporary

    Existing or coming into being at the same period; of today or of the present. The term that designates art being made today.

  • Drawing

    The depiction of shapes and forms on a flat surface chiefly by means of lines although colour and shading may also be included. Materials most commonly used are pencil, ink, crayon, charcoal, chalk and pastel, although other materials, including paint, can be used in combination.

  • Film

    A transparent, flexible plastic material, usually of cellulose acetate or polyester, on which light-sensitive emulsion is coated, or on which an image can be formed by various transfer processes.

  • Installation

    An artwork comprised of many and various elements of miscellaneous materials (see mixed media), light and sound, which is conceived for and occupies an entire space, gallery or site. The viewer can often enter or walk around the installation. Installations may only exist as long as they are installed, but can be re-created in different sites. Installation art emerged in the 1960s out of Environmental Art (works of art which are three-dimensional environments), but it was not until the 1970s that the term came into common use and not until the late 1980s that artists started to specialise in this kind of work, creating a genre of ‘Installation Art’. The term can also be applied to the arrangement of selected art works in an exhibition.