Apparition: The Action of Appearing - Roger Malbert

Condition: New The genesis of a work of art, the moment of its appearance, is at the heart of this new group exhibition. The emphasis on ‘action’ in the title corresponds to a performative element in the show, which includes artists from Europe, North America, China and South Africa. Most of the works are showing in this country for the first time. William Kentridge’s Shadow Procession leads the way into the exhibition, where an explosive drawing by Cai Guo-Qiang sparks relationships with visionary works on paper by Marlene Dumas, and Christine Borland’s bone-china casts of foetal skulls. The inky pages of a sketchbook by Charles Crumb converse with Susan Hiller’s back-lit transparencies From India to the Planet Mars, while Paul McCarthy’s ribald video-performance Painter chimes with photographic self-portraits by Elizabeth Manchester, Daniela Steinfeld and Jon Thompson.