Mr Monkey sees On Measuring Uncertainty at the Castlefield Gallery, 4th May
Mr Monkey went into Manchester to visit the Castlefield Gallery, so that he could see the work of Andrew Lim and Kit Craig in the gallery's latest exhibition, On Measuring Uncertainty.
Andrew Lim's work relies on physics holding ordinary objects in extraordinary positions. Mr Monkey remembered being slightly nervous when approaching Lim's work at the Chinese Arts Centre and at Catapult07 at Urbis. His work in On Measuring Uncertainty involves depriving the gallery staff of office supplies including filing cabinets, lever arch files, shelf brackets, duct tape and pencils, and arranging them as geometric installations.
Mr Monkey's favourite piece was the deceptively simple Closest Point of Meeting, which involved rolls of duct tape suspended from the roof and posed around a filing cabinet. Mr Monkey did wonder what would happen if someone moved the cardboard box, but decided against finding out for himself. He was also impressed by 121, though it's not the most efficient way of storing pencils he's ever seen.
Kit Craig's works draw on references as diverse as paintings of the Dutch Golden Age, houses for hermits and computer programmers' flow charts.
For On Measuring Uncertainty, he has created a pencil and gouache picture, Self Portrait With Two Circles (to be read as a key), based on Rembrandt van Rijn's 1665-69 self portrait of the same name. The drawing is intended to be used to interpret seven accompanying sculptures.
Arranged in a cross, the sculptures - The Anticipated Form, The Bracketed Space, An Orthogonal Equivalence, An Objectified Subjective and The Observers Influence - are made from wood, MDF, perspex and Jesmonite. Mr Monkey had never heard of Jesmonite, but it's a castable acrylic composite material.
Mr Monkey would probably have found it easier to use the drawing as a key to the sculpture if he'd been allowed to carry it around the gallery with him, but it was firmly fixed to the wall.
Instead he tried to memorise the picture then scampered around looking at the individual pieces. He's still not completely sure how directly the drawing and sculptures relate to each other, but he enjoyed peering from one structure to the next and marvelling at unexpected views.
Andrew Lim's work relies on physics holding ordinary objects in extraordinary positions. Mr Monkey remembered being slightly nervous when approaching Lim's work at the Chinese Arts Centre and at Catapult07 at Urbis. His work in On Measuring Uncertainty involves depriving the gallery staff of office supplies including filing cabinets, lever arch files, shelf brackets, duct tape and pencils, and arranging them as geometric installations. 
Kit Craig's works draw on references as diverse as paintings of the Dutch Golden Age, houses for hermits and computer programmers' flow charts.
Arranged in a cross, the sculptures - The Anticipated Form, The Bracketed Space, An Orthogonal Equivalence, An Objectified Subjective and The Observers Influence - are made from wood, MDF, perspex and Jesmonite. Mr Monkey had never heard of Jesmonite, but it's a castable acrylic composite material.
