30 1/2 x 30 1/2 inches
Vigo Gallery is proud to present CRISPR - Duncan MacAskill’s fourth solo show with the gallery, in celebration of his eightieth birthday.
The exhibition presents works predominantly from 2019 to the present day taken from his ongoing DNA Paintings series that lies at the core of his practice. CRISPR - "Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats" - refers to contemporary gene-editing technology.
In a world and ‘art world’ that feels ever more commodified and packaged, Duncan MacAskill stands out as an artist who, throughout his long career, has always made art with a pure spirit of playfulness and unbounded creativity. This essential quality of Duncan’s work is, in fact, inescapable to anyone who has: met him; visited his studio, itself a Tardis-like, ever-morphing, work-in-progress; been lucky enough to be a recipient of his infamous mail art (many of which are in the Tate collection); or who have followed Duncan on Instagram for any length of time (if you don’t, you should: @duncanmacaskillstudio).
Duncan is a compulsive creator. To give a few examples: as seen on his Instagram, the simple act of placing three pills in different contexts as varied as the back of a tortoise, a plate of food or the window of a speeding train becomes the ongoing visual saga of an anthropomorphised ‘Pillface’ character, essentially conceptual self-portraits in multiple contexts. In another series, the day’s free newspaper will be cut up into myriad, delicate slivers and collaged into captivatingly intricate patterns. Bits of broken polystyrene might be stuck onto a board and then flocked (Duncan is a big fan of flocking) so that the finished work brings to mind a strange lunar surface with a compelling odd Seventies soft-furnishings vibe. This free-flowing, everyday creativity infuses Duncan’s more formal series of works such as his DNA Paintings that make up the core of CRISPR, his latest exhibition for Vigo, staged in the rather wonderful and grand surroundings of Wellington Arch.
The DNA paintings shown here are the latest in a series begun in the Nineties which took their initial visual cues from the barcode-like DNA sequences that were often printed on transparent sheets for reference in medical settings. In this, now retro, bit of data visualization, the DNA sequences are articulated in vertical columns made up of short horizontal bars of variegated thickness. In these graphic representations of what are essentially the fundamental biochemical units that make up all organic life, Duncan sees repeated visual rhythms that he transposes to the paintings in the form of flowing fields of sculpted paint applied using a piece of cardboard as an applicator. In the spirit of CRISPR, Duncan has revisited and reworked his DNA paintings, either in deep blue or black paint laid over plain or chromatically stained backgrounds.
Elsewhere in this show, intimations of the contingent, protean immediacy of Duncan’s practice are literally showcased; pages of his gloriously rich notebooks, postcards and accumulations dominate the cabinet. Concurrently exhibited on instagram are his ephemeral ‘Pillface’ artworks- an ongoing visual saga utilising his daily medication to form an anthropomorphised diary of his magpiesque view of the world. These works are essentially conceptual self-portraits, fleeting interventions created spontaneously on the hop and integral to his everyday existence, offering an invaluable insight into the mind of the artist.
Authenticity is a suspect concept in the first place and on top of that is a much abused one in our times. Nonetheless it feels like a good and accurate description for the quality of Duncan’s work. It feels honest, generous and alive.
- Nick Hackworth
‘These are abstract portraits of unknown sitters, a tribute to both our strong commonality and total uniqueness.’
- Toby Clarke
Duncan MacAskill is a London-based visual artist whose work has been presented in a range of contexts including large-scale commission for Sadlers Wells and installations at the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station. MacAskill has exhibited with Vigo Gallery since 2014. Selected solo shows include: ArtsAdmin (2004 to the current day), Saatchi Gallery, Djanogly University Gallery and Reed’s Wharf Gallery. Mackaskill, who is close to the world of theater and performance, has also worked with BBC Television; Almeida Theatre; Royal Court Theatre and Queen Elizabeth Hall, as well as collaborations with Nicole Fahri and Ally Capellino. MacAskill works are included in the collections of institutions ranging from Tate Britain to Beth DeWoody’s The Bunker Artspace.
