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Art

Rebecca Ackroyd: The Mulch

Behind Peres Project’s red-tinted windows a community of oversized humanoid plaster-cast figures by British artist Ackroyd are sprawled, reclining and lounging across the floor.

Image for Rebecca Ackroyd: The Mulch

Courtesy Peres Projects, Berlin. Photo by Matthias Kolb

Behind the gallery’s red-tinted windows a community of oversized humanoid plaster-cast figures by British artist Ackroyd are sprawled, reclining and lounging across the floor. Unclothed apart from the glasses, goggles, bicycle or crash helmets that cover their faces, some have their chicken wire frames exposed in sections. Hinting at the flesh and blood they are missing, the cavities have been resealed with red acrylic and dripped with red wax. All facing the same direction, they look like freshly landed aliens casually watching some sort of entertainment unfold before them. The strange atmosphere is added to by what resemble brightly coloured oversized shells and crustaceans strapped with orange casts of plastic bottles scattered among them. On the walls are a number of paintings that feel a little lost, but uphold the sense of something extra-terrestrial, and alongside them three sculptures of the dirty metal shutters of a shop called “2018 UK”. A fourth bearing the name “2018 EU” leads one to wonder if Ackroyd is referencing the much-quoted phrase “England is a nation of shopkeepers” and the already impacting Brexit reality. A politically topical trip into the fantastical.

Through Jun 15