John Wood and Paul Harrison

“No Time” is John Wood and Paul Harrison’s debut exhibition in Portugal. It is also the title of the first small-scale print on view in the show (No Time, 2009), from their series “Some Words, Some More Words,” which consists of white text on black backgrounds. Other works from this grouping, spread around the corridors of this houselike gallery, include It Is Only Real for a Year, 2009, and Making Decisions Thousands of Decisions, 2009. The uncanny nature of these phrases resonates with the British duo’s tiny, witty sculptures, such as an eraser tip in Pencil, 2009, and a set of staples positioned at a ninety-degree angle on the top and side of a shelf in Staple/Shelf, 2009.

Absurdity has always played a significant role in the artists’ output, and this quality pervades not only these works but also the six videos that constitute the core of the exhibition. Recalling their signature-style works, in which the artists perform droll scenes, in One More Kilometer, 2009, a man takes a sanding machine to a pile of paper in a choreographed action. Other videos further explore Wood and Harrison’s humorous practice. By drawing on the burlesque situations featured in silent films, they have arranged unusual situations with trivial objects in Fan/Paper/Fan and Shelf, both from 2007. In the former, a sheet of paper floats in the air between two fans; in the latter, a long traveling shot captures a shelf with items such as models of boats and kitchen utensils. In this show, Wood and Harrison call attention to the symbolic character of the banal to address existential issues, smartly playing with artistic tradition and everyday life.