Piper Keys, London

March 7 – July 12, 2020

drips the room

Ian Law

For the exhibition drips the room, Ian Law presents a new body of work centred around fourteen short texts developed over the course of a year and presented at Piper Keys for the first time.

The texts are the result of a writing exercise that began after a book Law was reading in the bath fell into the water. Left to dry, a pink mould grew across the book’s pages. This random growth marked approximately fifteen-hundred words which the artist transcribed and slowly reconstituted into fragmentary poems. Each text conveys a psychological world furnished by personal items and human interactions, while the series suggests a modest theatre played out within a domestic space.

In drips the room, Law melds the materials of personal memory, cultural reference and the found object. Here, the deconstruction of a book allows for repurposing, just as decay allows for renewal.

Text by: Piper Keys

Ian Law, Untitled, fibre based bromide print, 25.4 x 20.3 cm, 2020. Installation view, Drips the Room, Piper Keys, London, 2020

Ian Law, Untitled, fibre based bromide print, 25.4 x 20.3 cm, 2020. Installation view, Drips the Room, Piper Keys, London, 2020

– Photo: Mark Blower
Ian Law, She’ll, plinth - wood, emulsion, 230 x 169 x 79.5 cm (interior dimensions of room with toilet, Binstead Lodge Road), potpourri - dried flowers infused with bergamot, mandarin and geranium oils, 2013/2020. Installation view, Drips the Room, Piper Keys, London, 2020

Ian Law, She’ll, plinth - wood, emulsion, 230 x 169 x 79.5 cm (interior dimensions of room with toilet, Binstead Lodge Road), potpourri - dried flowers infused with bergamot, mandarin and geranium oils, 2013/2020. Installation view, Drips the Room, Piper Keys, London, 2020

– Photo: Mark Blower
Ian Law, Bath Text (i - xiv), digital prints on paper, each 22.5 x 13 cm, 2020. Installation view, Drips the Room, Piper Keys, London, 2020

Ian Law, Bath Text (i - xiv), digital prints on paper, each 22.5 x 13 cm, 2020. Installation view, Drips the Room, Piper Keys, London, 2020

– Photo: Mark Blower
Ian Law, Untitled, chest of drawers, ceramic by Marianne Measures (1970-2010), potting soil, unpicked t-shirts, 69 x 76.5 x 40 cm, 2020. Installation view, Drips the Room, Piper Keys, London, 2020

Ian Law, Untitled, chest of drawers, ceramic by Marianne Measures (1970-2010), potting soil, unpicked t-shirts, 69 x 76.5 x 40 cm, 2020. Installation view, Drips the Room, Piper Keys, London, 2020

– Photo: Mark Blower
Ian Law, Bath Text (i - xiv), detail, digital prints on paper, each 22.5 x 13 cm, 2020. Installation view, Drips the Room, Piper Keys, London, 2020

Ian Law, Bath Text (i - xiv), detail, digital prints on paper, each 22.5 x 13 cm, 2020. Installation view, Drips the Room, Piper Keys, London, 2020

– Photo: Lewis Ronald