THE ICEMAN’S POP-UP BLOCK SHOW
Once again,aim or The Iceman disappeared before his presence was fully realized. Milford on Sea was an unlikely venue for such a pop-up exhibition. Once again there were numerous paintings of The Iceman in full performative action. But somehow they were more ordered and defined. The juxtaposition of colours is spectacular. The compositions convey a feeling of a scene being witnessed live by an audience,then and there. The figure of The Iceman was more expressive and organic. The Blocks were more alive. This might have arisen from a bolder but more sensitive use of the palette knife because the different textures on the canvases were more marked and seemed to have a certain depth. Also on display was his recent ‘brush’ series where aim seems to be declaring he is now an artist to be reckoned with. The texture of these are consciously hair-like and aim seems to be presenting the brushes to a viewer! These images are serious and humorous at the same time ,partly because of the pose of the represented painter but also because of the expressive facial features of the artist. Also displayed were his recent Blockliceft series which concentrates on the moment when The Iceman struggled to lift up the heavy block of ice at the beginning of his performance,before the inevitable collapse of his support system. I particularly liked the muscular effort conveyed in these highly kinetic paintings.Limbs were at full stretch. I wondered why the show was titled The Faimx Show. So I read a long preamble on the wall. Apart from his annoying but endearing habit of slotting his painting name,aim, into words,it was clear that there was a reason behind the choice of title. There were many fascinating ink-drawings and collages of the moment when he used a fax machine to make copies of polaroid photos of the ice-block for his audience. I liked these because they employed copies of the original blocks,attached to the image. They also showed The Iceman pressing the copy button on some extraordinary styles of fax machine. Somehow they captured the Iceman’s determination to eject the blocks into a future life? He actually had a more modern fax machine for visitors to the gallery to use themselves. They were asked to select a colour copy of the original block from a book-type folder and then feed it into the machine and press copy themselves. Some strange black and white images appeared that vaguely resembled the original blocks. It was amusing seeing people participating in this ritual but they entered into the spirit of play and seemed happy with the results,especially if aim signed them himself.This brought back memories of the performance days. I did have a brief word with aim himself,as he was helping visitors to operate the fax machine .There was a bit of a queue so I said I would return to get my own copy but I was too late.He had quizzically said “Blocks don’t always wait for man”. He was right. When I returned to the gallery another day, The Iceman had gone,literally melting away. I never got my fax copy of a block.It have to confess it riled me a bit. I feel the poorer for that loss which somehow is ridiculous.I have heard that there are many signed fax copies out there and some have even been framed. But still,overall,I was genuinely pleased to have seen basically 2 year’s work of paintings by aim,including some mobiles that had originally sat on the floor like sculptural installations and then had moved to the ceiling-a trip from Earth to Heaven?This dynamism within the very process of hanging the show adds to the intrigue. It’s never static,which perhaps hearkens back to the unpredictability of the original so-called ‘act’.
Kafé Smictiric [art critic]
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