Iconic by Andrea Taylor

Iconic by Andrea Taylor

Headspace at Egg Café, Liverpool, L1 4ED
Until 10th December 2017

Reviewed by Joe Coventry

Widely traveled Andrea Taylor now resides in Liverpool, where her latest exhibition adorns the walls of the Egg Café. It consists of ink jet cartridge prints on high quality paper of her choice of this city’s six most famous landmarks.

The prints come in A4 or A5 size and in a range of repeatedly patterned designs that capture the essence of what each landmark is all about. They are spaced in groups of similar patterns, or aglommerated at the will of the artist, around the walls of the eating space. Depending on where you sit, you will get your first taste of what is going on.

First up for me the tightly meshed interlocking of lines and curves established the theme of lampshades, indicative of the first use of electric lights in the Picton Room in Central Library, part of the Unesco Heritage site.

The largest expansive arching ironwork space in Britain, Lime Street Station, is referenced in a second icon and the ubiquitous, (first concrete built) Royal Liver Building with it’s world wide appreciated ‘Birds’ perched on high, in the third.

The patterns do not have to be viewed vertically or horizontally but can be read, for example, diagonally in the case of Lime Street, or as a mirror image in the case of the Liver emblem. The overall emphasis is in capturing the essence of the icon.

The other motifs consist of symbolic representations of St Georges Hall, (Minton Tiles) in the first air conditioned building.

The Port of Liverpool Building, the links of Empire and maritime reaching out, (hands across the sea) and the Titanic associated Cunard Building make up the rest of the icons.

Whether in monochrome or multi mix shades of any colour each exact configuration can carry different connotations depending on how the eye perceives them in relation to the surrounding prints; some can sometimes come across more vibrant or less striking than those around them as the brain takes in and processes the available information.

All the icons can be ordered in A3 or above on request and a range of options for printing on tea towels, postcards or playing cards, (for me), immediately comes to mind. It is not a big exhibition but draws you in as you try to figure what is going on and where.

The works are for sale, so while waiting for your mint tea to cool, give the works a whorl.

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