CityLife

The most recent show at Castlefield Gallery is an exhibition of three artists all concerned with the nature of objects and their ability to evoke memory and association. The hanging of the show is evocative of museum or 'Cabinet of Curiosities' with object and artwork placed throughout the gallery. The absence of signage and description enables the work to be free from the authorship of each artist and enables the viewer to imprint their own personal mythology on to the mysterious artefacts and images which are presented. Each artist has salvaged an experience of humanity, from the in-depth personal and autobiographical works of Dallas Seitz to the collages and sculptural assemblages made and inspired by discarded domestic magazines publications by Lisa Penny and finally to the scouring of the streets and internet for defunct objects which are later 'repaired' or re-interpreted by Hilary Jack. This group exploration of ephemera draws few conclusions, the exhibition acts as a snap-shot into the ongoing process of autobiographical categorisation and understanding which is a universal experience of living. Throughout ones amorphous life-span memory is key to our experiences which help form the person we become, in this process we surround ourselves with objects which help to delineate and signpost our identity both personally and culturally. Some objects are collected and esteemed others are discarded, it is this hierarchical location of the object that the artists explore. Creating assemblages which re-present the 'lost and found' to art object and to esteem the personal collectable to the 'museology' of the public realm. 'The Social Lives of Objects' successfully invites a reappraisal of ones owns loved and loathed detritus, haunting, humorous and occasionally disturbing this collection of objects is a manifestation of the rare and unusual example of a group exhibition that hangs together coherently without visual clash or compromising the individuality of each participating artist. The resulting labyrinthine narrative summons the 'Freudian' notion of 'the Uncanny' and leaves the audience to ponder the nature of the objects that litter our lives. Jimmy Holloway