Paul McCarthy- Hauser & Wirth

The King, The Island, The Train, The House, The Ship, always vulgar, always crude always unforgettable. Yes McCarthy's show at Hauser and Wirth, again despite it closing in the near future (14th January) is definitely worth a look in if you can manage. 

Pig Island is a project which has spawned and grown from the characters of George Bush and Angelina Jolie developing into grotesque machines. The simultaneous movement of them with the whiring noises of the pigs,  have the eyes following you around the room, the uncomfortable or displeasurable feeling sits with you as you go through the exhibition with a underlying sense of humor about it as well. 

But with this showing of admiration for McCarthy he mocks us. The King, a silicone copy of McCarthy himself sits upon a throne at an elevated status, as we sit in church pews following him like a priest or even a god/king. 

In all definitely get down to the show if you can at both the Picadilly and Saville Row branches of Hauser & Wirth.

Wendell Castle- Best Leg Forward

There are only 3days left of this great show as it ends on the 7th, but i liked it so much that i thought i had to tell you all about it. While it may be in the modest Albermarle Street Carpenters Workshop gallery, the work seems to say something bigger and work in a far larger way than the physical appearance of the gallery suggests. The work flows from the sketches they are based upon, working not from computer aided design but instead from the hand and mind of the artist; however, an interesting thing that Castle notes is that each piece is also sculpted by the grain and feel of the wood, the work itself presenting a resistance. The work is constructed from stack-laminated wood, which is literally inch-thick stacks of wood sculpted into these explorations of volume and shape. 

This stacking technique seems to immortalize the works for me, the banding effect created representing the rings a tree, but with these the flexibility of the materials and this technique allow the work to go on and grow. Each piece has its own character and feel, every curve telling a different story evoking different thoughts.