I found Coventry's series entitled 'Crack Pipes' a very potent, in depth look at the serious issue of hard drug addiction in London. He achieves this stark powerful impact by cutting out unessissary factors of ambiguity and focus almost solely on the one object that sums up the entire issue, the crack pipe. Crudely handmade and personal pipes are collected from addicts and cast in bronze on a small platform so they are free standing objects. They range from various bottles with piping to abused asthma inhalers. There is also a framed photograph of some women using which helps to put the objects into a uncomfortable context.
By taking the perpetrating object and casting it this way, you are raising the level of formality and importance of the object that stands before you in the gallery space. And by raising it up on a platform in a reminiscently Greek-like art fashion, thus the importance of the issue is also heightened as a parallel.
This is a key other example of how taking a seemingly unimportant or overlooked everyday object and raising it to a level of importance through presentation can have a profound effect; and depending on how this is done, an original idea or provoked feeling can be manipulated out of this.
I really enjoy the way that Coventry always creates work in a series which are connected by one central theme, holding the body together in unity rather than a fragmented concept which is diluted by every straying piece. He has one idea; this idea informs each piece equally, as though they all follow the same mission statement written at the start/all answer the same brief. I think it is a much more credible and strong way to conduct ones work and a good basis to go about creating work. I will endeavour to always keep this in mind with my own work, feeling that a clear, strong concept met by every piece will inevitably produce a strong body of work. Its a formula that interests me and should be pursued.
