Tuesday 10 December 2013

The Mysterious Malc Dow

It isn't quite peasouper density but the London fog has now cleared and reveals Social Advent Door No.10.
Cardboard City #10
The hazy and atmospheric conditions are certainly in keeping with today's artist, Malc Dow who remains one of the mystery men in our band of Creatives.

Once again we find ourselves at the foot of the Oxo Tower, as tourists start to unhitch their vast telephoto snatchers and the London commuters suck in their collective breaths for another day at the office.


Malc Dow's open door
Malc Dow has been exhibiting with us since the Brighton Open in 2011 when we placed his 'Naked Ape' magnets along the seafront of the popular arty town. Since then he has been a regular contributor to both exhibitions and our publications, including FreedBook and Patternotion. Despite regular contact he still remains an enigma, his art graces the cover of a Fernando Poo record and he leaves snippets of his life in my inbox which lay tiny thought-bombs in my mind. Dow is an artists who is passionate about communications, non coercive learning, freedom of speech. So our philosophies here at Collectconnect have comfortably rubbed shoulders with his.

Malc Dow's submission to the Cardboard City exhibition, Minimal Living, is just as mysterious as the man himself. The image represents anything but minimal living, here is a luxurious wood panelled room with canopied bed and an exotic vista through the window. I assume it is a dig at our modern consciences, where we salivate over glossy magazines, feather our own nests and covet they neighbour's Scandinavian ceramics. We give our post chintz movement the clean and classy title of Minimal but what truly represents that word is to have nothing. A sparseness that could be the result of unfortunate circumstance rather than design and choice.

AL.

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