Art Wednesday

Words by Charlotte Jansen.

The Crypt Gallery was filled with the living on Tuesday night for the opening of a new five day exhibition of simultaneous solo shows – As Real As A Dream by Hong Kong-born Hin and Susan Elliot’s UK Home Truths, supported by Mauger Modern Art. Running until the 26^th only, the Crypt’s caverns were packed out for a show of over 70 works, featuring Hin’s drawings, installations, sculptures and paintings, and Susan Elliot’s glittering mosaics, shown for the first time in a London gallery.

Mixing a childlike colour palette with a sinister catalogue of emblematic pop figures – MJ, Aileen Wurnos, Charles Manson – alongside animals and everyday ephemera, Hin’s art then lashes out hard against contrived ideals of happiness. His visual mantra is one of bittersweet euphoria, and his philosophical thrust tracks this closely; as he puts it, he tries to find a harmony between sorrow and joy.

Susan Elliott’s critically acclaimed and widely collected mosaics, composed of collected and found materials, ceramics and jewels, unpack myths of national pride, and deconstruct clichés about British culture, paralleling Hin’s desire for a more flagrant and realistic portrayal of iconic identity. The living and the dead, dreams and reality, and truth and fiction all intersect in this opulent collection of artworks.

Against a backdrop of broken tombstones and dusty walls, the scent of decay and damp filling your nostrils, even when you emerge for a few puffs of fresh air (or a cigarette) above ground, this is the kind of show in the kind of venue that makes you want to explore, excavate, and scrutinise – for once, it wasn’t all about the wine. Just don’t take any hallucinogens before you go.

As Real As A Dream runs at The Crypt Gallery until the 26th of September.

• The Crypt Gallery (Click Here)