Exhibition Run: 3 May 1997 - Sunday 15 June 1997

Cubitt presents a survey exhibition of work by Jeff Luke, who died in 1995 aged 33.

With the logic of inevitability Jeff Luke’s art mutates the machine-made goods of urban culture into new hybrid forms. Combining the associative drift of unconscious thought processes with a near-promiscuous approach to materials, the work invites the participation of the viewer: we consider its origins and speculate on possible applications, alternating between past and future tenses.

Making Apparent, Doing Nothing, Use – three titles map out a scenario of potential function denied, of desire excited then frustrated. Associations multiply. 800 small objects sealed in plastic bags anticipate a future archaeology. 300 household fluids, removed from the homes of the artist’s friends, are a portrait of a community tied to consumption. 100 sculptures strewn across a gallery floor suggest both obsession and boredom, polar responses to the disorientating volume of information in circulation.

Recalling the earlier enquiries of Minimal and post-Minimal practice, this work implicitly negotiates the “thing in itself” stance of the assisted readymade, and calls instead for the presence of the viewer to activate it – either physically or conceptually. In this light, the humorous allusions to bodily function and need go beyond anthropomorphism, inviting a more complex involvement with these imagined technologies.

Jeff Luke was born in Hartlepool in 1962. He studied at Cleveland College of Art and
Byam Shaw School of Art, and subsequently worked in London. Group exhibitions included;
Inside a microcosm, Laure Genillard Gallery; Imprint 93 Cabinet Gallery and City Racing;
Now Wash Your Hands, Arnolfini. Jeff Luke’s work can also be seen in
Lovecraft at CCA, Glasgow from June 14th 1997.