S1 Artspace presented Ersatz Objects, a group exhibition of new and existing works by London based artists Julika Gittner, Tommy Grace and Duncan Marquiss. For three years, Gittner, Grace and Marquiss shared a studio in Hackney Wick, London, yet this was their first opportunity to formally present their work together. The exhibition explored the nuances of artistic influence within the context of communal production space – akin to the open plan studio culture adopted by S1 Artspace.

The term ersatz denotes a copy or replacement, perhaps made from artificial materials. It implies that a superior original already exists but is missing in this instance. This lack and substitution were recurring factors in the otherwise disparate work of Gittner, Grace and Marquiss.

Gittner’s interactive sculptures and performances derived from her background in architecture and an interest in its social impact. Despite employing a systematic approach of working to a brief (devised from job descriptions or disability benefits tests) her sculptures had an anthropomorphic pathos in their ramshackle functionality. They appeared as lumpen figures whose adapted organs await an absent operator, their recycled materials understudies for more permanent concrete or aluminium.

Grace’s hybridised newspaper collages appeared to be born out of his work as a graphic designer yet they reject the communicative function of the printed word and remain stubbornly mute. Lorem Ipsum is a substitute text invented by typesetters to mock-up pages awaiting content. Grace employed this nonsensical ‘dummy’ script to construct impenetrable op-abstracts that defied black and white reading.

Marquiss’ rubbings of his clothes on fabric resembled flattened doppelgangers, frozen in suspended animation. Paralleling Gittner’s sculptures they suggested absent figures or objects endowed with life. Frottage replicated objects as uncanny images but like photography it could exaggerate tones. Marquiss’ black and white 16mm film portrait of Grace in his studio, Grey Test, considered the subtle tones lost in representation. Attempts to catch a spectrum of greys by over and underexposing the film failed to replicate a human grey area.