If I Stand on My Toes, I Can Touch the Ceiling at the Ivy

Tristan Schoonraad, or Schoony to his mates, has been developing his sculptural skills over many years as a maker of models and figures for special effects in films. His casts and prosthetics have been the monsters and aliens in such movies as Rambo, Harry Potter and the imminent Kick-Ass 2. 

In 2011, Schoony’s work Boy Soldier was installed outside the Houses of Parliament in protest against the UK’s involvement in the war in Afghanistan, breaching both the national press and national consciousness. Versions of this piece, which was created using his friend’s seven-year-old son as a model, are made in coloured editions. 

A one-off evening upstairs at the Ivy Club presented Schoony’s latest sculptural casts to invited guests. Although The Ivy is a member’s only venue, Schoony’s work is bound to turn up in other places. A video wall showed images and clips from film sets and working life, hobnobbing with celebrities and life in the workshop. Images of the works in a variety of venues perhaps prove that they have more impact on-site and in places out of a typical art context. In a gallery setting, the quest for lifelike reality suffers in comparison to other artists practicing today who specialise in even higher production values.

The title piece of the show, If I Stand on My Toes, I Can Touch the Ceiling is an almost levitating woman, hanging from a fingertip. Master Warhol is another piece in varicoloured editions, the mini artist-model looking at the world through a cine-camera. Skilled, but light on the kind of background research usually expected of fine art, Schoony’s work nonetheless has visual impact.

Verdict: ★★★★★

Eleanor MacFarlane

If I Stand on My Toes, I Can Touch the Ceiling was at The Ivy Club on 9^th August 2013, for further information visit here.