David Pratt

Description

As if by magic a greenhouse, the emblematic symbol of suburbanisation, growth and the acceleration of nature, has been raised from the ground and become an object of whimsicality and adornment. With winged bicycle wheels, a brass bell and suspended ladder it has undergone a metamorphism, becoming an object of mobility and transience.

But it is not just these superfluous add-ons that have transformed this temple of light and transparency. Pratt has incorporated into this, his first three dimensional piece, an incredible talent as a draughtsman, subtly etched on the fragile pains of glass are drawings evoking a sense of mythical dilemma. Conveying notions of confinement within a small yet completely translucent space, the drawings interact with the physical structure of the glasshouse as one sees it as an imperative tool of subjectivity within which these carefully crafted etchings openly appropriate.

In the etchings the greenhouse takes on numerous incarnations;it is almost as if they provide a record of permanence as to where this fairy-tale like contraption might have been before its sojourn in this wooded enclave. In one example it appears that the stilts upon which it rests have grown to an immense height, people down below gaze up in awe as if it were a temple and a white dove gracefully soars above pervading a sense of purity and innocence.

The work is a direct response to Pratt's drawings, with a flurry of narratives contained within sculpture they are left very much open to interpretation of the individually minded viewer. Despite its clarity in materiality the placement of drawings upon the glass is such that one can find oneself lost at any moment creating a sense of continuing development that might perhaps be never-ending.