Concrete Playground

There is not enough time to look at everything, so we have to choose. This choice can arrive arbitrarily (a magazine in a waiting room for example) or it can be orchestrated with agency, effort and that wonderfully hominid ability to ‘make time’ for something. So the question that concerns us here becomes apparent: should we make time for this particular arrangement of things?

Simply put, in the opinion of this compromised contributor, the answer is yes. Darren Knight Gallery currently houses the work of four artists, Robert Kinmont, Kenzee Patterson, Charlie Sofo and Ronnie Van Hout; all artists whose work works for our attention in subtle, unassuming, clever and considered ways. Intelligently curated to include Kinmont — a textbook-worthy conceptual artist who has been arranging stuff since the 70s — alongside national artists such as Van Hout, Sofo and Patterson, the exhibition finds a happy peculiarity that wriggles out from an understated manipulation of materials.

This curiousness is seen in Patterson’s Type 70, a geometric cube that at first appears like any other self-serious minimalist object but then, on closer inspection, surprisingly reveals that its structure is made out of spirit levels. A similar reaction occurs with Sofo’s Wood Ideas, which displays a table of familiar and prosaic objects (Paddle Pop sticks, pencils, a roll of toilet paper) all shaped from wood, presenting a fantastic patience for mimicry and joyful deception. Although there are many things you could look at instead (a kettle, a picture, a tree, a dog, a television), this too may be worthy of your precious time.