New exhibitions at Gaffa

Overview

Tony Phillips' Veil examines cultural difference as both a construct and a shaping mechanism for our views in his depictions of Papua New Guinea. Disavowing primitivism, these pieces aim to show the inadequacy of the anthropological method of developing mutual understanding between cultures.

Marianne Potts' prints in Catacombs and Caves engage with both her own heritage and the history of a place. Taking printmaking to the point of what she calls 'paper sculpture', Potts has undertaken as series of works depicting the 7000 year old  system of caves and tunnels on the island of Malta, where she was born.

Simultaneously close to home and focussed on incomprehension, Mike Barnard has created a series of paintings based on his experiences of watching news coverage of the war in Afghanistan. With a conceptual palette of updated Baudrillard, the works in What's on the other channel? place images 'torn from the headlines' in dialogue with the artist's domestic space, exploring the way we develop narratives in relation to our changing media context and interfaces.

The most abstract set of works in these shows, Alexandra Clapham and Andrew Haining's some from the other, is also the most literal in its address of place. With raw-seeming geometric constructions, the work draws attention to its own occupation of space and functions as a framework for dimensionality.

Image: Catacombs & Caves, Marianne Potts