Alistair Macintyre

REVIEWS

TANGIBLE ABSENCE
Anna Jóa, Morgunblaðið, September 5th 2006. 
Translation from the Icelandic original.

Ice, iron and paper are the materials of British artist Alistair Macintyre in his show ‘‘Vanishing Point“ at Reykavik´s Turpentine Gallery. The title of the show refers to the point of intersection, or vanishing point, of perspective lines – but could also refer to something which shrinks down to nothing.  That, in fact, is exactly the method Macintyre uses, combining iron and ice and allowing them to self-destruct onto heavy paper, forcing them to undergo a material metamorphosis.

The works in the exhibition are the fruit of a process that embraces chance event within the framework of the artist’s intentions.  The result in most cases is abstract.  The iron comes to rest and forms a broad range of configurations caught in the ridge and furrow of the buckling paper surface.  A good example is the eye-catching piece, ‘‘Grid Reference II‘‘, where concentrations of iron appear to float in a diamond composition.  A white underlayer – the paper – shines through and delineates clearly defined forms that trick the eye, appearing to jump out into the foreground, lending an extra dimension to the work.

The piece ‘‘An Absence of Field“, exhibits a similar sense of tension.  The iron appears to stand out from the ice traces, the meltwater setting up an illusional three dimensional experience, with converging lines that disappear into a void. The paper, or empty space, which is in fact the background, pushes forward as a series of levitating white forms, poised in opposition to the perspective, deliberately unravelling the illusion.

THE SKIN OF THE PAPER
Halldór B.Runólfsson, Morgunblaðið, 27th February, 2000
Translation from the Icelandic original

Alistair Macintyre lends the title ‘‘Gravity Skins‘‘ to his exhibition of large graphic works, won from ice and iron. He covers the paper with iron-laden ice, and little by little rusting ferrous matter and ice fuse with the paper. The volatile fallout remains on the paper surface as traces of rust in all its possible nuances.

Macintyre, , who has stayed here for long periods at a time, says he has used ice for several years, because of its inherent ability to change spontaneously from three-dimensional mass into surface-bound liquid. The self-consuming power of the ice, in conjunction with the iron, which gradually reduces down into a loose sediment of rust, becomes a reflection of the natural forces at work all around us. Slowly but surely time and change do their work. The paper becomes a kind of testimony to the evolving process, a self-written chronicle of a transformational event.

At the same time the work becomes emblematic of how all mass strives, ultimately, for a state of flatness. As the artist points out, the paper begins to assume the role of horizon, where the world at large becomes compressed onto a distant, flattened surface, like a great spontaneous drawing