Concrete Playground

Putting birds beside guns may seem a dangerous move, ripe for violence. Actually, it makes for quite a nice dialogue between two new solo exhibitions at the recently relocated Gaffa space.

Dan Simon likes playing with guns. Canons, bombs, axes and chainsaws also feature in past and present work. The obvious overtones of violence and destruction are a field within which Simon plays, re-presenting these objects in different ways. By recasting, remoulding and (figuratively and literally) opening up different weapons, an innate aesthetic is exposed which has little to do with the social constructs hovering around them. I was lucky enough to see one observer explaining, in simple terms, the operating mechanisms of a semiautomatic to his young daughter. Be careful not to mistake Simon's fascination for worship, however; context is acknowledged and subtly teased out in different ways.

On a slightly lighter note, a walk into the next gallery reveals Andrew Ensor bringing the humble doodle to a whole new level. Bird Brain explores a feathered fascination, through a plethora of twig-like sketches with blobs or scratches of colour. The focus often strays from the birds themselves in a deliberately absent-minded way, providing visual representation for fleeting thoughts or child-like associations: pirates feature alongside pigeons and penguins. Foolishness is fun, and we don't at all mind the weird and wonderful ideas that crop up here.

Image by Andrew Ensor.