Feltus Feltus

The last time I went off to the Arches for a visual art exhibition, it was a bit of a mixed bag. The exhibition, Chris Coleman-Smith's Burnt and Charred Surfaces, was a collection of 8 photographs, each sampled from, you guessed it, the remains of recently burnt buildings, which was actually an interesting insight into the past of the buildings. Now, given the sort of building that the Arches is (large, nooked, crannied) there was a real potential to make this a great exhibition.

But the works were just papped up in the weird lobby space, off the main reception, hanging off the walls like those creepy paintings of dogs that hang up in the waiting area of dentists. (Shit like this). Worse still, was that because I went during my lunch hour, about 1 o clock, I had to clamber between groups of people slurping lattes and talking about the previous nights edition of Coronation Street. It was just a fucking mess basically.

So, it was with definite trepidation that I went off this afternoon to see the new Feltus Feltus show, Two Gentlemen.

The exhibition, like Coleman-Smith's, was a collection of photography presented, rather unceremoniously, in the dimly-lit lobby area. Happily, the crowd were downstairs in the cafe bar, which meant that I was able to gawp away to my heart's content at the works. Which were alright I suppose. The main focus of the show was the juxtaposition (yeah? YEAH!) of the inner-self and the fabricated exterior, which meant that we were offered plenty of bizarre theatrics and psuedo-religious imagery (one piece in particular actually dropped the 'psuedo-' part and went all out, casting the Feltus brothers are deliberately terrifying bishops). Actually, the deadpan eccentricity and dark undertones only served to remind me of how good a film Roy Andersson's We, The Living is. Like I said, the exhibition was OK; nothing to get particularly excited about.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of the Arches; it's a great venue for club nights and they have a decent enough booking policy. Likewise a great, and innovative, theatre venue. I just think that 'One Of Europe's Leading Arts Venues' shouldn't really be squandering the potential of the fairly solid visual arts exhibitions that they book.