Assert or Deny? is that the question the art of aim demands. Can his work really be presented in banally deterministic terms? Is the block an itemised recipe? Are the seemingly tasty painted reproductions of blocks reduced to the artwork’s conceit. Is the figure of The iceman a constant? aim’s new series, “The Iceee Gaimlery” series [IcG] is a case in point, as aim infiltrates the “Blocks” into the paintings of viewers viewing the pictures. Could it even be The iceman looking at his own blocks in a gallery setting, rather than the rough and tumble of his live performances? We are almost peeping through their eyes. Titles are not witty but do encapsulate the meaning incoherently. Constitutional elements have transparent equivalence. Is exegis actually relevant here, at all? Aim’s images are not perfunctory, but generate a certain aura and mystery. The correspondence between concept[ice] and form[block] beckons anonymity with the visual being subservient to the reflexive conceit involved. The blocks claim space-that’s clear! His paintings are art objects articulating themselves. They may be repetitive , tautological, self circling, reitererating to a point of dysfunction. But these painted conundrums ask about the personal vulnerability of the viewer. They convey delightful delusion in a hipsterish style. The materialism is a confirmation of an optimistic assumption, a cheerful token wave to conceptual art of the 60s/70s. Objective communication rests on a missive like language. Aim’s aesthetic autonomy says “look at this delivery mechanism”. It may be a déclassé plain look or even verge on the “retinalness”. Both historical assimilation and remote satire self-consciously summarise the conceits that sublimates idea into object. Extrapolating phenomenological experience from a cheeky cipher, market value becomes specific , which is perhaps why aim’s paintings stay obstinately low-priced. I am hoping this new series,IcG will be a long one,before it organically transitions into a new series,which is his normal way of moving on. [Kafe Smictiric, art critic]
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