In ‘Ornamental Breakdown’, Bernie Reid’s first institutional exhibition in the UK, the Edinburgh-based artist took the stencils developed throughout his three-decade career and cut them out to create new compositions. The artist finds inspiration in the futurist Fortuno Depero, whose aesthetic has been a constant point of return when constructing the abstract modernist bodies that populate Reid’s practice. Untitled (Carpet)2021, and The red jester, 2023, are both spray painted on non-slip flooring bolted directly to the walls with screws and washers. This unusual choice of materials is reminiscent of Depero’s infamous futuristic depero publication, which was bound in the same way.
By reusing and sampling his existing silhouettes, Reid managed to celebrate a new cast of characters filled with vibrancy and glamour. In Bust with dark black hair, 2023, an angular blocked hairline gives way to a smooth slick of loose hair, in a mesh of flatness and roundness favored by the artist. In Figure in leotard, 2023, perfect goblet-shaped breasts tower over a right-angled belly while three locks of curls trail behind. Each modular shape recognizes the balancing act our bodies perform when we’re in motion, our limbs sometimes defying the gravity that keeps us pressed against the Earth. Light escapes from the works, reinforcing the surreal attributes of Reid’s subjects. Gaps, outlines and bright colors bring with them a rambling joy, like that experienced at the end of a hedonistic evening. Reid’s work is marked by its immediacy as well as its momentum. It feels like these characters were pinned only fleetingly and could, at any moment, start jumping up and down walls again.
