Noah Da Costa, Concrete: Gallery at NUA, St Georges Street, Norwich
Tuesday 21 January – Saturday 1 March
Pleasure in detail
I had to force myself to visit this exhibition, walking past the gallery window the images looked so obvious – photo’s of concrete chopped and arranged in a symmetrical pattern and blown up – seemed a bit contrived, passé, all done before by anyone with photoshop. But I went in because I like the way concrete ages, and then just looked at the detail, the patterns that were so full while the larger shapes were so basic, and obvious. The black and white pictures feel much more powerful than the coloured ones, possiblybecause it was tempting to see the darker areas as shadows which then made no sense as the shadows needed too many light sources to fit with reality.
There is a nice contradiction between the desire to ‘make sense’ of the concrete, to try and make a top and bottom in each picture, to try and see a building in there somewhere, and the pleasure in looking at endless, endless detail, feeling that the repetition could go on forever. And there is nothing else there, apart from pattern, light, and shade. Creating falseness all over the place, and then replacing it with what to the eye looks like infinite and beautiful detail.
Do these works remind anyone else of Escher?
