The Thousands

I spotted the Old Toll Plaza artist catalogue cradled in the arms of a stranger. Conveniently, the stranger and I were in a gallery context, where I work, and so enquiring about it was easy and not odd. Old Toll Plaza is a small book which is the take-away merchandise of Kenzee Patterson‘s solo show at MOP. When Kenzee is not art-making he’s one of the excellent directors at Redfern ARI, Locksmith Project Space.

Stills of his sculptures sit between sheets of ‘learn to write’ paper – the wide-lined kind we first spelt our own names on. The sculptures were things you’ve seen before like the ubiquitous golden smiley face sticker, hand prints marked on walls and paddle pop stick craft efforts. They’re a smart renewal of old feelings in new contexts and the kind of memories you’d buried but might like to revisit. Kenzee’s work provides a thought trigger and simulates a universally relatable photo of childhood in the 80s-90s.

In true MOP style, three disparate artists all come together in the same gallery storm, so alongside Kenzee’s sculptures you can see Mark Booth’s Plain Brown Wrappers which are actually white and Cybele Cox’s painted imps and beasts too.