Marc Quinn’s work at the White Cube Gallery in Bermondsey incorporates the impressions of objects found on the beach by the sea.  Alaric Hammond in his series “Caustic Windows” at the Saatchi Gallery in London incorporates everyday images found in the city, which are then etched into zinc plates and assembled with great precision onto timber panels.   Drink bottles, mobile phones, medicines, photographs and product packing are incorporated in a variety of ways, sometimes just repeating the same image over and over again, but with different etching effects, a little like a miniature series of Andy Warhol screenprints, sometimes juxtaposing different images together. These latter are the more interesting as they show the contradictions of cities with images of couples enjoying life, dancing and flirting surrounded by items thrust in front of us by advertisers or tossed out by our throwaway society; with an undercurrent about the role of money and the financial centre.

Hammond takes inspiration from the urban and social environment of London:  “99 per cent of what surrounds us in the city is uttery mundane, yet we still find magic, beauty and wonder just as we do when surrounded by nature ….Specifically in London I have found an exciting friction between the gleaming windows of the financial centre and the rougher more vibrant outskirts”  (Alaric Hammond).

This exhibition, curated by Olly Walker of Ollystudio, presents enigmatic and beautiful works which invite the viewer to look deep into the etchings, a technique which itself creates an image suggesting rust and decay, and consider the contradictions of the modern city environment.

“The etching and corrosion process employed results in works suspended between creation and destruction. The objects represent genuine entropy. There is beauty in decay.”  (Alaric Hammond).