DENIS BROWN is primarily and essentially a calligrapher, and a fine and accomplished one too. This exhibition leaves you in no doubt about his sheer flair and virtuosity in that precious and all too rare line, but it also has a message something which usually makes me a little wary, from long experience.
An explanatory essay by the artist underlines the sexual content, and there is much quotation from the Mosaic Law and the Book of Leviticus embodied calligraphically in the works themselves. This evokes the old "unclean" connotations of sperm, menstruation, etc. and other Biblical taboos, but the artist also talks about "the escalating tensions between Christianity and sexuality". Personally, I would have thought this belonged to the recent past, and that the younger generation(s) no longer bother with such things but it does explain the presence of condoms in at least one picture, and of the appearance of vaginal or vulvular imagery in others.
Ultimately, I find Denis Brown's qualities as a calligrapher far more interesting than his sexual message, or whatever it is, and when he allows them full scope he is most convincing. Document, in spite of the objects attached, is eloquent of style and taste the Snakes and Ladders in quasi book form is witty and beautifully made and some of the small pieces are models of skill and good presentation. It is when he is dealing with big themes that he becomes pretentious, even slightly banal, as in Holocaust or The Burnt Offering In other words, he is best when he hones his own considerable skill and for the moment forgets his message.
