The exhibition was a compilation of his past projects including "Ghosts" a set of 12 drawings, most of them versions of a single phrase – "They Taught Their Children that the Poor were Ghosts who did not Exist" – black acrylic paint used repeatedly on separate sheets of paper, Mirror pieces which was repetitive yet slightly altered phrases written in neon lights using only 5 different colours (red, white, pink, yellow, blue) and finally on the side of the centre's building, Revolution; the same instructional phrase – 'Start a Revolution' – 8 times, in four colours (red, green, orange, blue).
Ghosts while simplistic at first glances really is not after thinking over that repetitive phrase. I interpreted it as a much more important and deep political message as people's benefits are being cut less and less meaning that more people are having to go to food banks and it's almost as if these Conservative politicians are people who have forgotten the poor because by cutting benefits they don't know how much this would impact people's lives. Ghosts was made in 2015, the year when the amount of people going to food banks increased by 19%. The crude and minimalist piece is eerie due to black ink combined with the rough styled handwriting. The black splatters on the other paper is a nice addition to the piece as well.
In a dimly lit room Etchells' "Mirror Pieces" really stood out and gave a hallucinatory atmosphere to the area. Once again it had a political message but not as subtle as "Ghosts". The three phrases: Optical Illusions, Political Delusions and Poetic Confusions were dotted around the room written in neon lights. Sitting down and just staring at these phrases could keep you there for ages in a trance like state, it was so simple yet so beautiful. You could just stare at the words and find other words within them, I found it quite hypnotic and therapeutic.
Finally, on the side of the building "Revolution". The simple but effective phrase "Start a Revolution" is repeated eight times against the white brick wall in different colours. The use of repetition is very powerful in this piece, seeing the word revolution in different colours in a vertical row is very satisfying. In the evenings when the sun was going down the words lit up the area with the neon lights.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed "For Now" as Etchells' unique style was thought provoking whilst aesthetically pleasing due to his use of neon lights. For something to be so mesmerizing and have such meaning is rare. There was a running political theme throughout all of his pieces. Though the exhibition had nothing to do with photography it influenced me greatly in my photographic installation and one of my pieces was based entirely off his work with neon lights. To conclude I would recommend Tim Etchells' work any day as his unique style still remains fresh in my mind today.
I thoroughly agree with your review. It was a brilliant exhibition. It was good to hear how his work had an influence on your photography and it would be great to see some examples of this.