Unfinished Narrative - Zuzushii Arts Lab, Hastings

I have often wandered past the Zuzushii Arts Lab on Hastings seafront and peered at the window displays, but it had never been open when I was visiting. I am delighted to say that as of today I am no longer a ‘Z’ virgin. 

The gallery is the joint project of Fumico Azuma and Tim Can and the current exhibition is called Unfinished Narrative – An Exhibition of Mixed Media Collage.  They set up the space about 3 years ago having ‘accidentally’ moved to Hastings from Berlin. This probably means that they have the Hastings incomer category of AOFB (Accidentally Over From Berlin) all to themselves. Tim is originally from London and Fumico from Tokyo, but they have lived in a lot of different places over the years. Their story and all their creative work in art, music, film and photography can be discovered on the Zuzushii Arts Lab website. 

I always liked the Zuzushii Arts Lab window displays. The seemingly random assortment of objects, incongruous combinations of things and materials, plus the sometimes dark and almost creepy aesthetic, struck me as good, clean, almost 'anti-art' fun. So finally getting inside what was never going to be an average gallery with dull, derivative and largely predictable art was quite exciting. In fact it was a huge blast of things I like that also reminded me of things I’d forgotten. So in homage to its very welcome effect of blowing away the increasingly dusty cobwebs in my mind here are some pics and a few more observations about 'Z'. We will start with 'Z' and the unfortunate matter of recent history that now associates that letter with Russian tanks. The Arts Lab have been 'Z' for a very long time so Putin is the logo loser. As a response to these events however, the Lab produced ‘Z’ badges in the colours of the Ukrainian flag.

This response is very much in keeping with the political thread that runs through some of the work in the gallery. Fumico’s work in particular highlights historical, political failures sometimes using images that became the consequential icons of those failures. Contained in wooden boxes that seem almost like Victorian curio cabinets, it is protest art in its purest form. A reminder that the actors and the locations may change but the brutalities inherent in the assertion of political power and dominance don’t. The human and environmental cost remain collaterals.

Fumico and Tim both work within the parameters of boxes and installation, however, the majority of work in this particular show is by Tim and also includes artist books and paintings with a focus on text.  Whether whole book pages, single words, cut up sentences or even seemingly random letters he frames text to create whole worlds of possible meaning. It is both surreal and oddly lucid at the same time, running another thread through the show about the ambiguities of language, meaning and perception. Or perhaps how we find meaning out of whatever’s there. Although the paintings have some textual connection their subtle and minimal palettes and lovely, understated textures are quite a contrast to the amount of visual information in some of the cut ups.

The whole space and the impact of everything in it is great. It seems like a whole integrated installation piece with a kind of punk sensibility and an open, informal invitation to simultaneously think about what’s real and what's imagined. It's also as fun as it is serious.  Sadly this show ends this weekend on Sunday April 17th. It has been on since March 10th and I really wish I had got down there sooner. But… it’s only Wednesday now so you’ve still got 4 days!