90 degrees      2007.
 
6 clear acrylic slabs – varying colours, stacked to attempt a 90 degree turn, unsuccessfully.
28 Luminarc smoked glass coffee mugs stacked in groups
Each module – acrylic slab – (the size of which references paving stones outside my flat in Hackney) – 80cms x 44cms x 5cms.

I was asked to be in a show curated by Terry McCormack that used an open studio weekend at Stockwell studios to exhibit a show titled ‘Days of the Commune’, responding to the nature of the studio and of work still being in flux, via the Berthold Brecht play of the same name.

Brecht stressed the importance of function and the role of the apparatus in theatre. The work ’90 degrees (2007)’ took the architectural ambition of the modernists, and likened this to the aspirations of the members of the commune.  The clear acrylic slabs and the smoked Luminarc coffee mugs reminded me of what would have been relatively new materials then, and still maintain an ‘aspirational’ quality even now.

The collection of mugs suggest a communal activity, using the ‘building blocks’ of the new utopia as a coffee table, (although the result appears to be a botched attempt at a 90 degree turn).  The rhetorical nature of the mugs on the ‘coffee table’ surface, I suppose is had there been different ‘members’ present during the commune’s struggle, would they have succeeded, where these people failed in their goals?  Or are all utopian dreams doomed to failure?