Monochrome stripes, pixels and retro hues trace the curved forms in The Arch Window at Southwark. Spring combines the sense of colour, pattern and shape that is typical of Mark Croxford’s rhythmic sculptures. His interest in contemporary art and design seemed a perfect match with Adeline Guy when they worked together on the show Acid Drops earlier this year. As well as being Registrar for White Cube, Adeline runs the art programme for Libertine and is embarking on a journey as a curator with a particular interest in commercial spaces. I caught up with both of them to talk about past, current and future projects.

You first worked together on the show Acid Drops- where did the name come from?

Adeline: I did my PHD on Colour Theory in artists and I just looked at those colours. I kept thinking, because I’m French, “Bonbon acidulé”, and how can I say that in English; it came out as Acid Drops.

Your works are often colourful and incorporate pattern.

Mark: I think it is a lot to do with the actual shape side as to what is going to happen to them later. I just like the patina of cities and the way that patterns can actually change the shape of an object and they give it a different resonance. I think that if you are using colours and patterns with shapes then it is an interesting angle to use. It gives off a kind of frequency that brings different tones to them.

You started out as a graphic designer and on your website you say you are inspired by architecture. Do you consider design a very important part of your work?

Mark: My work is influenced by my journey in a way. Certainly, the beginnings of that were that I started off as a graphic designer in the days of Paste up and in my practise as I’ve progressed, I’ve used graphic design and references to architecture as a way of making work. I’m really interested in Brutalist architecture like Corbrusier and Ernö Goldfinger. That really extreme design really appeals to me. Many of my shapes are the isolated and quieter moments of those strong building.

As the curator for Acid Drops, did you feel that Mark’s pieces worked well in what is more of a commercial gallery space because of the  combination of his design and artistic background?

Adeline: It worked really well because you understood the space so well.

Mark: The space is very giving. That particular venue is extremely easy to work in because it does have a very hard city edge to it but at the same time you can hang things at gallery height, or maybe slightly higher, the works directly referenced their industry and they referenced the space well.

Adeline: Yes, it’s not the White Cube but it is a creative and advertising office space and the walls are asking for work to be hung. There is such a lot of reference between the advertising world and the art world in Marks works, as well as, the relationship between some prior works like pop art and the 70’s. That just sings.

How did you find viewers reacted to the work?

Adeline: They really liked it but the types of viewers were different. They weren’t all arty orientated or art lovers. You had the advertising types; you had the journalists and you had the photographers with all different reactions. It was really nice to see the whole body of Mark’s works together. I think everyone took their own background and would say “that reminds me of that” and maybe not trying to put in the contemporary art context was quite nice. As you know, working in a gallery you are always trying to put in a fresh view.

Mark: I think also there is something really healthy about showing contemporary work in different venues. Be it a business context or an educational context or obvious a gallery space. It does change the intention of your work and it does make you look at it in different ways.

You are currently exhibiting Spring at GPstudio’s The Arch Window. How do you find such an architectural space relates to your work?

Mark: Certainly with that space, because it’s a railway arch with large windows, you get a lot of passing people. It was really enjoyable for me when I first installed it to stand across the road for half an hour and watch people’s reactions as they walked past. It was quite a refreshing thing because my shapes relate to references points and in my visual language,  I really explore not only the objects but the space they pull as well.

In Spring, there are seven free-standing objects that relate to each other. They are based on drawings and photographs that I have been doing recently which reference landscape and the city.

Is it a London experience of the landscape you are referring to?

Mark: A lot of my work relates to the urban landscape, a lot of it relates to living in the city. I live in Hackney, my studio is in Hackney. I think your environment really informs your work and it is a very strong part of my language. I think the shapes I use are recognisable, well they certainly are to me but in their own way they reference some of my favourite buildings and some of my favourite elements of those buildings. My sculptural language is something that has taken an awful long time to find and it is extremely personal in that way.

You have travelled and exhibited in Switzerland, Finland, Estonia as well as in the UK. Is travel integral to the ideas in your art?

Mark: I started out doing snow carving events and I was invited to a wood-carving symposium many years ago, the first one I went to was around ’96 and it really opened my eyes to what you can do with wood and how you can use very traditional materials in contemporary ways. In terms of object making, it was a great experience for me. I don’t really agree with competitive art-making at all, it’s a hindrance but as an event they are quite good fun.

You can get an awful lot from travelling. It is interesting to see the way other people work; the way other people think about making work and how they approach their subject matter. The term symposium, which people feel very strong about mentioning at these events means the coming together of minds so that’s really what was going on there.

Your works are often wall-based and others are free-standing, do you consider them to be sculpture?

Mark: I actually think of it all as 2 ½ dimensional. I make sculpture but I think when you are working with deep relief, the way that you use colour and form can really change the shape of the work. It is something that I am quite conscious of now, making a number of different images fit together, like with triptychs and they really resonate the space between them together. That is really something that I am going to pursue.

Finally, what are you working on at the moment?

Adeline: I’m doing an exhibition that will probably take me two years on pop culture but mainly concentrating on The Cure, partly because my partner is one of their biggest fans on the planet. Now, I’m trying to find funding through advertising and trying to find a space to accommodate that type of work. With Mark, it is on going so I would like to do something in the next couple of months once we’ve found another space.

Mark: At the moment I am designing neon pieces for a project which will coincide with Frieze week. I’m really interested to know how I can get neon colours to work with the colours of my present sculptures and having them fabricated will be a new journey for me as well. I’m using neon and Perspex and I’m trying to find interplay between those two and see how it all works whilst using very similar forms in my other works.

Visit Spring at The Arch Window, 74 Great Suffolk Street,
London SE1 0BL, http://archwindow.wordpress.com/2011/05/23/spring/