5 - 29 May 2010
iArt Gallery Wembley: A Project Room for Contemporary Art
Conceptualised as a walk-in graphic novel, The best thing since spilt milk takes as its narrative core that things that are really bad for you can also be very good for you and vice versa. Although the graphic novel style of the work creates the impression that the exhibition is pure fiction, the events depicted are, in fact, based on a true story: it begins with a trip abroad following a job opportunity in Dubai in which a malapropism transforms into an oxymoron and becomes the defining description of the experience of being away from home.
The viewer recognises immediately the particular style of the graphic novel – the format provides clues for decoding, each grouping of work appearing as a separate chapter in the storyboard of the exhibition. However, the story does not follow a distinct linear path. Rather, the “chapters” and a few facts are all that the viewer is given, prompting him/her to fill in the gaps.
In some chapters, figures turn their backs on the viewer, discovering their out their preferred state of being in their private puddle of milk. In another, a character sits defeated, folding thousands of delicate origami birds. Somewhere else in the story, flamingoes and peacocks rely on the creativity of our protagonists to provide them with their distinct and illustrious colour.
Birds form a central metaphorical motif in the story, particularly in light of the fact that, at some point in history, thousands of birds were transported into Dubai in an effort to populate the barren area with wildlife. Unfortunately, the only birds willing to stay on in the harsh environment, were the peacocks and flamingoes. The rest, deciding that home was indeed sweet, flew back to their natural habitats. One ends up feeling that Anderson’s story follows similar lines – that the formation of identity is a complex and ever-shifting process, but sometimes squeezing oneself into an odd-shaped
box is not the best thing since…
As the characters journey through their shared experience, lived by the viewer through cut-outs, drawings and paintings, they find themselves sometimes in limbo and often in positively negative circumstances. In expressing herself through a graphic medium, Anderson explores in a wholeheartedly contemporary and challengingly positive manner the issues of everyday denial and the intertwined relationships of opposite factors.