Wolfgang Breuer
Umbel
30 June–24 September 2006

Wolfgang Breuer has produced the series Stained Glass Pictures using security screens gathered from the local area, which are called ‘window screens’ by its manufacturer who designed them in association with Hackney Council. Berries are attached in the holes of the existing pattern on the screens in minimal compositions. These berry compositions were originally done on sites where screens are installed with the function of blocking access into deserted buildings. Through Breuer’s interventions the aggressive measures taken by the council, are translated into picture objects hung on the buildings’ facades. In the gallery, the work is taken one step further, stripping the security screen for its function and allowing it to function as a canvas yet carrying the meaning of its use value.

Accompanying this series is a similarly appropriated bench. A commonly used piece of public furniture operates here as a warped, curvy freestanding picture. The bench and the attached berries are contrasting in scale, yet their equally bright colours allow the two materials to operate on the same level.

The exhibition continues outside with the intervention Plant Suggestion in a desolate and neglected flower bed in front of the Tower Hamlets Council Office, 255 – 279 Cambridge Heath Road. Dots are sprayed on to the soil, leaving a temporary and fragile pattern, which will gradually disintegrate into its surroundings.

A selection of other interventions in public sites from recent years is represented through a group of photographs in this exhibition.