Combined etchings

Press, 20 July 1984, Page 16

Combined etchings

Etchings by Karen Mason and Kate McLean at the Gingko Gallery nntil August 2. Reviewed by John Burrell. The works of two quite dissimilar artists are presented together in juxtaposed contrast in this exhibition in the Gingko Gallery. One type of etching is highly illustrative and anecdotal, the other abstract and alluding to the mechanical. Karen Mason is the more experienced of the two artists and presents 16 works of varying sizes. Her etchings contain less textural detail than in earlier exhibitions, and her images of figures and faces look like suitable illustrations for children’s storybooks. However, they are too mannered and lacking in psychological nuance to succeed as serious characterisations, appearing dreamily romantic, somewhat fey and twee.

Some, such as the four works based on playing cards, show an adolescentlike preoccupation with mysterious gipsy personages. Others, such as “Waiting for Winter,” are tear-jerking in sentiment, with no hints of underlying humour or self-deprecating irony. Kate McLean provides the more adventurous work in this exhibition. Although the range of sizes within her 12 prints indicates that she is still unaware of how to consistently exploit the formal qualities of her marks, the biggest etchings show that she is capable of making commanding and subtle images. The three works in the “Theatre Box” series are the best works in the gallery. They contain rectangular box forms which act. as a stable foil for the gestural

lines and patterned impressions floating in space in front of them. The symmetry of the abstract structures in McLean’s work makes them look like mechanical Rorschach tests. Their rigidity adds interest to the more spontaneous elements. Other works of McLean’s are not so successful, mainly because her use of curved arched forms does not provide the equilibrium necessary to accentuate the spatial qualities of her freer marks, or help the traces of movement they often suggest Although some of her prints are contrived, and inappropriate in scale, the success of her “Theatre Boxes” shows that she is capable of producing some striking abstract images in the future. They make this exhibition worth a look-in.