Sorcha Dallas

The moment between the curvilinear and hard geometric lines is always a difficult one to pull off- Heinrich Wolffin at the metaphorical German birth of modern art history used distinctions such as these to separate one style from another.

Goethe’s new tragic installation may not be playing the game- it could be claimed that conceptual concerns are more central to the work than its forms- and if this was the case the work still falls short. The sculptures are pretty and superficially satisfying, well, at least at first glance (‘Smashing’ for example). A reflective surface brings out the narcissist in everyone, and the mood backlighting set the scene for striking attitudes- of arch scepticism. Are these re-workings of Gilbert-Lecomte’s poetry from ‘Black Mirror,’ Nostradamus’ scrying pool, or Malevich’s ‘Black Square’?

References are suitably gothic and the play of surfaces is attractive, but the sculptures are conceptually barren. The work is reminiscent of Craig Mulholland’s take on similar motifs, but has none of thematic complexity. In using a hammer to test the mettle of art it should resonate with catastrophic emptiness and not ‘Dong,’ (metal, mirror and strip light).