At Decode, currently on at the V&A, the first thing you see is Daniel Brown’s ‘On Growth and Form’. Commissioned for the Porter Gallery, it’s just outside the exhibition and is massive in size, about 4 metres high. But despite this big scale, its position makes the work easy to miss and that, along with the fact that it’s the only Daniel Brown piece in the exhibition, is a real shame.
In it, muted colours and delicate floral, organic forms are constantly morphing to make images that change and grow; the result is hypnotic and soothing. It reminded me of a Fischli and Weiss exhibition I saw at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris back in 1999, which included Sichtbare Welt (Visible World), an installation where they layered double-exposed images of flowers on top of each other. When these slides were projected in slow transition and at a huge scale you had an illusion of movement plus a blast of colour and beauty to mind-blowing effect. Brown uses more advanced technology but the emotional power is the same; awesome and calming.
Daniel Brown 'On Growth and Form'
Seeing Fischli & Weiss’ installation when I was about to start my first wallpaper collection was a real inspiration for me to make large-scale digital banner prints. It was just at the time when both digital photography and digital printing were becoming more affordable, helping pattern and imagery become more ubiquitous in interior design.
Brown has already been commissioned to produce works for private clients but I think something like ‘On Growth and Form’ would be great in a hospital or public space. And pretty soon it might be possible to have work like this in our homes.
Daniel Brown 'On Growth and Form'
I think designers and artists seem to turn to nature images at a time of change when something comforting is needed. Fischli & Weiss’ flower installation was touring as we were approaching the end of a millennium and Brown’s work is on show as we enter a new decade, and in a period of uncertainty.
Elsewhere at Decode interesting works included the kinetic artwork ‘Weave Mirror’ by Daniel Rozin which uses image-capture combined with hundreds of C-prints that organise themselves into a light and shadow, ‘woven’ picture of the person looking at the work. It sounds (and probably is) complicated but is beautiful to look at. Oasis, a lightbox with black sand creating amoeba-like forms, the splodgey, interactive piece ‘Body Paint’ and Aaron Koblin’s ‘Flight Patterns’ a visualisation of the flights across US airspace in a single day also stood out. Unfortunately ‘Dandelion’ by Sennep/Yoke wasn’t working but I’d love to have seen it.
Decode is at the V&A til April 11th.
Here’s where you can read more about ‘Sichtbare’ by Fischli & Weiss.
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