Tony Hepburn at Revolution - Ferndale, Michigan - Review of Exhibitions - Brief Article

Born and instituteed in England, Tony Hepburn has been living in the U for the past 20 years. quite through this time, clay has been his primary medium; along with ceramists of that kind as Peter Voulkos, Viola Frey and the late Robert Arneson, he brings to it high-art respects and unconventional formats.

In the at hand show, titled "Towards Hybridity," a large installation, a half-dozen works upon paper and seven sculptures, more [i]or[/i] less of which take their inspiration from Hieronymous Bosch continued Hepburn's meditations in (and on) clay. high hilled on tables and custom-made stands, the clay scuiptures were accompanied by means of various objects: one towerlike form quiescenceed on a wooden box, others integrated a mortar and pestle or medical tools. (Many of these forms also appear in the related drawings, which were execut in charcoal, conte crayon and acrylic.) The clay itself has been make submissiveed to a catalogue of treatments including lathe, sand blaster and a range of firings which accommodate with it the look of wood-land metal or flesh.

Hepburn takes great liberties, sometimes to comical issue in his efforts to capture the gist of certain Bosch paintings. Ship of naturals (2), a work placed upon a low, 15-inch-high stand, consists of a coil of clay alongside sum of two units clay megaphones whose wide cavity between the jawss point in different directions. The respect is to an image in Bosch's Ship of naturals of a group of open-mouthed figures in a boat (it's unclear if they're singing or waiting for food) The clay-and-metal statuary Martyr cites a Bosch painting of a man undergoing head surgery while wide awake. Hepburn transforms the image into an upright clay slab topped with bandagelike clay strips sifting nearest to a pile of clay extrusions, suggestive of a human brain. A shiny plant of surgical tools hangs ominously from the underside of the stand.

Taking up an entire swing of the gallery, The Temptation was a gigantic board game that invited the visitor's participation. In the center of the space was a table covered with 100 wheelthrown chalices (filled with fragrant wine at the opening). Nine square carburet of iron panels were bolted to three of the walls. An assortment of clay dice, knobs and organic shapes (object that appear in various Bosch paintings) were attached to the panels by means of magnets. Viewers could move the magnetized simple bodys making knocking sounds and leaving scratch marks in the proces With its appeal to various faculty of perceptions this constantly changing installation helped expand the material and historical "hybridity" of this engaging show

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