RODEO London

October 10 – November 21, 2015

Ian Law

YOU'RE ADJUSTING

It may be justified to keep a single bird when a close relationship with a lonely, chronically ill or immobile person is to be established. Single birds have no other living contact, so they will need a great deal of human attention…*

I was waiting to write the text for the exhibition. Something happens in the transition between waiting and grieving that feels perpetual, loopy even. The lone budgie awaits a response from the mirror it is feeding. We nervously pick at chairs as we wait within the assigned spaces of care institutions. You’re adjusting, coming to terms with the muting of something familiar, once present. The work in this exhibition sets about re-addressing the surfaces familiar to such settings as if visiting sites of the absent body.

*from Your First Budgerigar by Dr J. E. Lohr published in 1991 by T.F.H. Publications

Ian Law, Reflections of absent others, detail, acrylic on canvas, compound feed for budgerigars, 2015

Ian Law, Reflections of absent others, detail, acrylic on canvas, compound feed for budgerigars, 2015

Installation view, Ian Law, you’re adjusting, Rodeo, London, 2015

Installation view, Ian Law, you’re adjusting, Rodeo, London, 2015

Ian Law, The wait is over, exposed waiting room chair backs with picked home-dried flower shadows, 44 x 310 x 44 cm (17 3/8 x 122 x 17 3/8 in), 2015

Ian Law, The wait is over, exposed waiting room chair backs with picked home-dried flower shadows, 44 x 310 x 44 cm (17 3/8 x 122 x 17 3/8 in), 2015

Installation view, Ian Law, you’re adjusting, Rodeo, London, 2015

Installation view, Ian Law, you’re adjusting, Rodeo, London, 2015

Ian Law, Untitled, Purell LTX-12 Dispenser with adapted circuitry, hygienic hand rub, 2015

Ian Law, Untitled, Purell LTX-12 Dispenser with adapted circuitry, hygienic hand rub, 2015

Installation view, Ian Law, you’re adjusting, Rodeo, London, 2015

Installation view, Ian Law, you’re adjusting, Rodeo, London, 2015

Ian Law, There was a body, I was there, was a body, detail, medical privacy screens with soft toy fur fabric and curtain netting, gift wrapped, 171 x 108 cm (67 3/8 x 42 1/2 in), 2015

Ian Law, There was a body, I was there, was a body, detail, medical privacy screens with soft toy fur fabric and curtain netting, gift wrapped, 171 x 108 cm (67 3/8 x 42 1/2 in), 2015

Ian Law, Reflections of absent others, acrylic on canvas, compound feed for budgerigars, 456.5 x 271.6 cm (179 3/4 x 106 7/8 in), 2015

Ian Law, Reflections of absent others, acrylic on canvas, compound feed for budgerigars, 456.5 x 271.6 cm (179 3/4 x 106 7/8 in), 2015