FLASK

"The paintings in this current exhibition do not physically incorporate the objects on which they are based, and the found objects are displayed separately. The principle is very much the same, however. Essentially insignificant things, in which Atkins has a particular sentimental or aesthetic interest, are given a new life within his own scheme. The rhythmic clusters of found decorative motifs in these paintings create the work in much the same way as the magical, evocative qualities of the various objects which encrust a Congo fetish figure transform it, and are transformed themselves. The drawer-handle, bangle, dish, flask, buckle, toe-separator and plate are only sources, that Atkins has used for design symbols that he then repeats in a pattern, but this emphatic repetition suggests fetishism of a sort.

Atkins also enjoys paint surfaces which have something in common with tribal artefacts. The application is thick and abrupt, while the heavy, used, truck tarpaulin he uses for canvas is covered in patches and thick seams, contrasting curiously with the elegant forms and ornamentation of the found objects. These objects were not randomly gathered, and they all suggest the same slightly geometric, Swedish design influenced, 1960s-1970s awkward age. Their aesthetic is still adrift, waiting to become securely lodged in a respectable category."
(T. Morrell, Urban artefacts: Peter Atkins, catalogue 1997)