The Sum Of Everything
Prue Gramp
Urban Cow Studio
Until Sun 22 Oct

'The Sum Of Everything' is, if anything, a very big title to fill. This latest exhibition by Prue Gramp explores, among other things, our need to find understanding within and between the gesture and the mark. Entering the gallery is like stumbling upon the memoirs or remains of a person and a time long passed. The indecipherable marks that adorn the works, so much like handwritten messages but without a single piece of recognizable text, become like a barricade between the viewer and the artist. Beyond the instinctive need for lingual recognition, however, is the mark in its own right.

The small, mostly white works spaced around the gallery walls are adorned with small, repetitive marks in black and shades of white. Often Gramp uses only one symbol or mark, repeating it hundreds of times across the page until the work is longer about the mark itself but, rather, the pattern as a whole.

In many ways, this notion seems to epitomize what 'The Sum Of Everything' is about. As a wise man once said, "the sum is greater than its parts". A letter is meaningless without the rest of the word. Equally, the marks in each work, and each work in the exhibition, must be read as a whole in order for the exhibition to make sense.

With media ranging from paper to plaster, Gramps works are often rough and scrawled, with an almost intense need for immediacy. At the same time her style can also be seen as incredibly delicate; pinned vicariously to the walls, each work seems to be on the point of decay. This, together with an off-white pallor throughout, therefore seems to express a strong sense of time. Although contemporary in style, 'The Sum Of Everything' could almost have been erected from an historical collection.

One of the most fascinating aspects is the way in which it forces viewers to adapt their understanding of text, art, and the document. The immediate reaction for most viewers is to try to make sense of the marks - to search for that one hint of a word or a sentence - to search for meaning. During this process the art of the mark is, to a large extent, overlooked and it is only after accepting the marks as gestures rather than codes that viewers can then reassess each of the works in terms of artistic process. We become aware of the forms within the works, the slight variations in tones and textures, and the often-enforced silences between the marks. It is at this point, when we have to look twice at the things we think we see or understand, and when we must rethink our instinct and logic, that 'The Sum Of Everything' can be truly appreciated as an exciting and successful exhibition.