Lisa Marsh presents 14 works, as framed prints, of lost women in cityscapes, wistful snapshots from urban life. In many of the works the women appear listless or distressed. Common elements are badges, hair as a dominant feature, eyes hooded in pastel make-up, and hearts - as motifs and earrings.

Welcome To The Johnsons is a triptych, three works mounted side-by-side. Three women in black and white are shown as characters in an urban setting, and in a band, with s sign saying 'Welcome To The Johnsons'. Burlesque At The Beach (a triptych) has three women in nightclubs, as a band, as waitresses, with signs saying 'Burlesque', 'Coney Island Baby'. The last triptych (all the other works are singly-mounted) is Fresh Air Freaks, the title shown on a button worn by one of the characters - two women at a funfair by a city lake, one on a bike.

In Motor Cities, a woman with brown t-shirt with the title as a slogan, and school-tie choker, has black mop-top hair. Freak Scene has a woman with the title as a badge. The title-work Coney Island Baby has a woman wearing the words on a badge, with pert red lips, grey eyelid make-up, a white heart on red collar and cuffs. In Elvis, I Love You, a woman has an Elvis tattoo, she's shown against a light blue ground. In Sultry In Stars, a woman with black hair and eye make-up, in a strapless lilac dress with big orange stars, on a red ground, looks sultry.

Burlesque Series No 1 has a woman with blue strapless dress with polka-dots looking wistfully out. In Red Hoodie On A Windy Day, a woman looks out of an urban scene, hooded with weeping-tree badge, against boats on a town lake. A woman wears a Kiss Me badge, she's in green, and choker neck-bow, wearing pastel cheek make-up and green mascara. A woman wears a Cherry Bomb badge, she looks sadly out of frame to the right, an apple earring and rocket-burst ending in tear-drops of rain. Alphabet City Daydream shows a woman with hooded eyes looking out, an apple collaged nearby. Losaida Lou is a complex collage showing a woman with a badge of the title, a cocktail, a cloud, hair made of a city and rocket burst. She's cut out and collaged over a map and cerulean-blue sky, looking pert and contemplative.

Although the images have bright colours, there is an inner drabness of the soul brought disturbingly to life in the individual and collected works. This is an artist looking beyond the facade, and the result is unsettling - there is an urge to comfort, but the suggestion that characters have placed themselves in the territory beyond warmth. Here are the verloren, the lost, wasted and defeated. The exhibition's title comes from Lou Reed, but the works suggest Randy Newman, whose 'scarecrows dressed in the latest styles, With frozen smiles to chase love away' evokes something of the inward sadness of the lost-girl quality Lisa Marsh so hauntingly brings to life.

List of Works: (as numbered in exhibition, approximate sizes): 1 Welcome To The Johnsons 2006 (3 works @ 25 x 20cm mounted horizontally in 110 x 40cm mount). 2 Burlesque At The Beach 2007 (3 works @ 25 x 20cm mounted horizontally in 110 x 40cm mount). 3 Fresh Air Freaks 2007 (3 works @ 25 x 20cm mounted horizontally in 110 x 40cm mount). 4 Motor Cities 2006 (20 x 25cm). 5 Freak Scene 2007 (20 x 25cm). 6 Coney Island Baby 2007 (20 x 25cm). 7 Elvis, I Love You 2007 (20 x 25cm). 8 Sultry In Stars 2006 (20 x 25cm). 9 Burlesque Series No 1 2007 (20 x 25cm). 10 Red Hoodie On A Windy Day 2007 (35 x 35cm). 11 Kiss Me 2007 (35 x 45cm). 12 Cherry Bomb 2007 (35 x 45cm). 13 Alphabet City Daydream 2007 (35 x 45cm). 14 Losaida Lou 2007 (45 x 50cm). (End of list)

Credits: Artist - Lisa Marsh. Hotel Proprietor - Hervé Guyat

END

John Park

reviewed Wednesday 23 May 07 / Gulliver's Hotel

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008