Street
Level, Glasgow until July 1st
Four
stars
‘Ever
been Changed by Someone?’ asks the nightclub-coloured neon sign from the corner
wall of Glasgow-born artist James Pfaff’s intimate excavation and
reconstruction of his own past. As the words beam out in scrawly hand-writing, given
the extent which Pfaff has been so profoundly affected by his subject, the
words might just as well be Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)?
Such
a hormonal rush of doomed amours is all over Pfaff’s document of a road trip he
made in 1998 from Toronto to New Orleans then back north to New York. He did all
this with a woman called Alex, a muse who lingers still in this ever expanding
homage to her that was first captured in a book curated, as with the
exhibition, by another woman, Francesca Seravalle.
Laid
out alongside a whole pile of scrap-books, Pfaff’s prodigal’s return is both a purging
and a taking stock, a not so secret diary of fleeting moments which are
captured, contained, immortalised and fictionalised as a visual poem and possibly
unreliable memoir of times past. Look, there’s Alex, shy and gamine in black
and white, hands up to the camera or else hiding her giggling face. And see,
there’s Alex at the wheel in colour, holding a cigarette and wearing shades.
Now look over there, it’s Alex again, posing with a gun and looking invincible
in an image scaled up to become a monumental pin-up.
Like
studied reimaginings of On the Road, A Bout de Souffle and Bonnie and Clyde, Alex
& Me is a rom-com, a tragedy and a runaway romance seen through one man’s
rose-tinted Raybans. It’s the beginning and end of a beautiful adventure every
would-be beatnik wants to have, wild at heart and weird on top. All of which
makes you wonder what Alex is doing now, why isn’t she here, and what’s her
story anyway?
The List, April 2018
ends
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