Expanding foam

There was a watershed moment in hardware stores nationwide about 15 years ago when expanding foam filler became publicly available. I, along with most other budding artist types of the day, rushed out and bought cans, convinced by Selley's marketing material that we'd be creating entire walls of polystyrene from a single aerosol can of the stuff.

Sadly the reality was't quite so flash - it didn't quite have the expansive properties I'd hoped for (though maybe that's not such a bad thing given the size of my flat on the Terrace), was awful to work with, and pretty much impossible to get out of your hair.

But a whole heap of artists persisted with it, and we've seen some mixed results. Peter Robinson springs to mind. As does Judy Darragh. But the best outcome I've come across has to be Hany Armanious' show at City that closed yesterday. Entire sculptures were formed from expanding foam - which I'm hoping for the artist's sake has got a lot easier to deal with.

Oddly though, it was the non-foam based works that had the greatest impact - particularly the substantial Mud Brick Pool Cue work. Quite brilliant.

How's that for a lengthy and painful segue into an incredibly brief review.
Left pic: Peter Robinson @ DPAG
Right pic: Hany Armanious @ Roslyn Oxley