S1 ARTSPACE LOBBY, SHEFFIELD

JAMIE CREWE:MALE EFFLORESCENCE

December 2012.

 

Male efflorescence describes a body of work by Jamie Crewe, displayed in the lobby of S1 Artspace, Sheffield, in 2012, alongside work by Jim Howieson.

Pasted and hung on the walls were copies of a litho-printed multiple, titled A poster by Jamie Crewe. This had two versions: one in green, featuring an image of Jamie photographing Waseem Akbar, and one in hot pink, featuring an image of Jamie photographing Ciaran Humphries. Both images were photographed by Lindsey Mendick. On the reverse of either version was a 1:1 reproduction of 'On the Index of Plato's Works: Woman’, a chapter from the Belgian theorist Luce Irigaray's Speculum of the Other Woman. This chapter is eight pages long and consists entirely of quotes from Plato's oeuvre which mention women. The pages, laid out in order, are ready to be trimmed and assembled. 

On the floor of the lobby were the manila-wrapped stacks of the remaining multiples of A poster by Jamie Crewe. On top of one of these was Antinous defacement crushing an effeminate hand, a sculpture in air-drying clay, acrylic paint, black marble, and spray paint. The slab of marble (acquired at B&Q) has been sprayed with fluorescent yellow paint, leaving a silhouette of a bust of Antinous. It is resting on a small sculpture of a hand, made from air-drying clay, painted with skin white as paper and red nails. 

On the other stack of multiples rests a further stack of photocopied publications, titled Women in Corydon according to my sister. Inside a yellow cover and on grey pages this publication reproduces a few ancient Greek friezes showing women, and a fastidiously transcribed conversation between Jamie and her sister Vicky. This conversation comes from Jamie’s request that Vicky read André Gide’s Corydon (1921), a defense of homosexuality in the form of a Socratic dialogue, and tell her what it has to say about women.