I went with my friend Helen to see the London Art Fair today. I'd been sent free tickets courtesy of the gallery from which I bought my Callum Innes prints so I thought I would pop along. It turned out to be a great place to walk around and catch up with an old friend. There was an enormous range of work on offer, literally running the gamut from the sublime to the ridiculous (£20,000 for a plastic grenade anyone?), giving us ample opportunity to say "how much?!!", "I could do that" or "that's good!". There were a lot of very large pictures that seemed to be saying nothing VERY LOUDLY. You'd need an enormous empty loft space for this enormous empty work, not to mention an enormous (and soon to be empty) wallet coz art aint cheap. They might as well nail 10 grand to the wall: it would serve the same purpose. And lets not get on to the giant masturbating half-man half-stag statue. Believe me, you'd have plenty of places to hang your coat.

But there were lots of other things I'd have gladly found room for in my flat. I was very keen on a wonderful etching of Edinburgh called "Athens of the North" by Chris Orr, a lovely (and tiny) Craigie Atchison picure of a washing line (an artistic washing line of course!) and a splendidly atmospheric mountain scene by Mary Grant. There seemed to be so many great young artists out there, capturing and expressing something of the world we live in and not what renegades they are (q.v. Hirst D, Champman J & D, Turk G erc).

I'd given myself a small budget and I thought I would come back and get the Athens of the North. But in the end I left with something very different and unexpected. I came across a series of pictures by an artist called Rachel Merrington. I don't really know how to describe her thing so I'll leave it to what I've just found on the web:

Rachel Merrington's work is based on landscape and the objects found in it. The eroding of surfaces and the way artefacts become part of their surroundings is the starting point for the work. Using maps and text reminiscent of the place, she works in steel using etching techniques to erode spaces in the metal. From large scale outdoor sculpture to small, fragile wall based pieces, all the work has the feel of archeological artefacts.

I bought a piece called Billingsgate which shows the river, the houses and churches of that part of London.

I think it's fascinating in the way that old maps are fascinating but also because of the holes in the steel and the shadows and the textures and colours of the bits that remain.


Reading that bit about erosion and archeology really surprised me: that's one of the things I've always thought about Callum Innes. I love the way he works by applying paint and then turpentine. It's the act of removing that seems to leave things I like. Hmmm