Carl Plackman: Obscure Territories
Pangolin, London N1
5/5

A WOODEN rack with a clothes rail and odd metal vestments hanging on hooks sits prominently on a wall of the Pangolin Gallery.

As a riveting salutation to Marcel Duchamp’s The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Bachelor of Arts instantly charms with its witticism.

Nearby, two black-topped tables entitled Decoy intrigue. One has a crow on a pile of wooden discs and, underneath and suspended on chains, assorted utensils painted black.

They include a flower pot, teaspoon, cow bell and a gas lamp, while the other has a black kitchen mortar in the middle with what look like petrified plant bulbs on each side.

Elsewhere, the floor and wall are fused together in four places by the triangular Aspirations vs Temperament — the harnessing across two metres of the infinities of horizontal and vertical space.

The creator of this mesmerising, deeply intelligent and subtle work is Carl Plackman. Born in Huddersfield to German-Jewish parents in the middle of WWII, he grew up in Bath.

He trained in architecture, which evidently informs his inventive yet rigorous management of space, particularly the employment of floors and walls alternatively as eloquent arbiters or accomplices.

Plackman — a teaching legend at Goldsmiths’ College for 30 years, where Damian Hirst was one of his students — remains the outstanding British conceptual sculptor, who was also imbued with particularly European formal and philosophical sensibilities.

As Richard Wentworth sa

id of him in his obituary in 2004: “The influence of his work, the power of his personality, the attentiveness of his teaching and the gentleness of his ways were an amalgamation of respect and affection.”

Packman’s work is neither unafraid of melancholy or humour. His extraordinary spatial discipline, much like his generous personality, makes his work entirely beguiling. It’s a sensory as much as an intellectual adventure.

For the most part, the components of his sculptures are in the tradition of ready-mades, objects acquired directly from hardware stores which are mass-produced and widely available.

The resulting intimacy and a certain prosaic lyricism — associated with familiarity — simplifies the visual narrative of each piece.

They are rearranged as an “architecture of metaphors,” as one critic remarked.

But there’s nothing random about their production, or their impact. These are works that stay in the mind. Go and see.

Runs until October 17. Free. Opening times: pangolinlondon.com or to view visit Obscure Territories