Death doesn't become them
Ways To Die
As the title makes plain, the issue here is death, more specifically, various exit routes. This infinite variety is well illustrated by Richard McRae's complicated family tree. This charts the cause or location of death for each ancestor and ranges from the improbable ('crushed by bread') to the ignoble ('died in a toilet').
In this, as in much of the work in this small-group show, there is the inevitable cheap humour, for death, like sex, always manages to get a laugh, even if there is little cause for mirth in either case.
Certainly amusing, but clever and grim too, is Jenny Lu's video 7 Basic Ways To Commit Suicide. The monitor sits on a table strewn with household implements, while on the screen the artist demonstrates their use for a successful suicide in the manner of an air hostess. Lu's obviously done some pretty thorough research to ensure foolproof results, but the piece raises serious concerns regarding the moral responsibilities of the artist - even in the context of an East London gallery where artists are expected to indulge in 'outrageous' stunts.
Less thought-provoking are Lee Maelzer's painting of a house on fire and Carol Ho's devilish horned children - two free-standing cartoons with what look like red antlers (but could be squirts of blood), apparently inspired by the Columbine massacre.
Presumably they point out that, yes, death by fire is indeed a nasty business, and that some children are not angels. But the work is no more illuminating than that.
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