ANYTHING GOES: RUTH DUPRÉ @ ARTHOUSE1

EXHIBITION 

Effusive and excessive (deliberately so), Dupre’s pieces gleefully revel in a promiscuity of materials, forms and disciplines-the central gallery space hosts everything from bombastically creative headgear (a series of fascinators named after indulgent sweets) to dresses of outrageous imagination (in addition to more traditional elements, rubber, plastic and even loofahs are grist for the mill) to paper collage to a work of gold leaf religious iconography to a curiously modest and quiet series of watercolours which, given the pervasive, berserk manic energy generated in the room, are perhaps the most subversive works on display. The smaller second room houses a truly unsettling assortment of patchwork quilt dolls and ceramic figures seemingly torn from the recesses of demonic myth, which prick, quite unpolitely, a viewer’s subconscious anxieties. Hanging off in the corner is a gown that resembles a shank of meat hanging in a butcher’s window, evincing yet another fissure of unease (and, perhaps, piquing Lady Gaga’s interest). Along with the rubber frock (which appears the result of slashing and arranging the treads of tires), this is the most outlandish example of a fascinating theme. Dupre’s imagery harkens back to the courts of 17th century France, where fashion took on the dimension of theatre, an ascension of playfully dangerous artifice, dress as statement, both personal and social. Flamboyance is elevated to principle (Dupré refers to her dress pieces as Facades, after Rothko). A few of the chapeaux are situated as window dressing, a crawl of aesthetic vine. She has convincingly transformed the space at this lovely South London gallery into her own court of extravagance-of temperament, desire and intent. Hatchery and Other Fabrications continues through 28 October

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