Terry Loane at Old Museum Arts Centre
Review by Lynn Connolly
Issue 2 Autumn Winter 1992
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The work of Terry Loane is a fusion of media and processes incorporating traditional crafts of old photographic processes - cyanotype and gum bichromate.
Final images are sourced from paintings, relics, toys and comics and presented as a collage of materials and ideas.
Themes which run strongly through the work are religion and male identity - the machismo variety . As Loane himself says, "I always think that men are little boys that have never quite grown up".
These ideas are realised in such imagery as the 'Meat Head' triptych, and yes, meat head is a potato but... "I don't like things being too predictable... the meat head is the ultimate shit head". Whilst being a somewhat whimsical work such duplicity of image and text is less than provocative.
What this work does offer is a way of removing boundaries of definition between visual media, for example, when text becomes image with 'BEWARE OF FALSE PROFITS'.
Lens based media would be the technical common denominator in this work with the abstract thought processes stemming from the themes of religion and masculinity. The superimposition of Jesus and Superman is... "about the marketing of religion - it's almost like a Iucky charm, I could have sold it fifteen times over".
It is a striking image, one which provokes reaction, Jesus does appear to suit the Superman tee shirt and the artist is aware of its potential to create a strongly felt response.
In an exhibition such as this, one must acknowledge the originality of method but one is left with the feeling that this exploration could be taken further in a more coherent manner. There is a sense of this being a body of work in progress, it is visually enticing, a rich presentation - but once drawn the viewer is left wondering what, if anything, happens now?
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