The unbearable tension of being, new sculptures by Ben Woodeson

The monopoly “controversial” art holds on being the most reactionary and evocative is well over, just look at the extraordinarily tense artworks of Ben Woodeson and tell me your hands don’t start to claw and your neck itch or however it is you unconsciously react to some impending doom.

Ben’s work harnesses, with acute tension, the sensation of watching a door slam or a glass tip over when you’re just not close enough to stop it. Only his installations involve materials with more spectacularly destructive potential, panes of glass being a clear favourite.

The newest pieces are now on show in Retrospex curated by Hackney Wicked at London’s Elevator Gallery. The titles of the works announce the artists intention if, for example, the vase of pool balls counterbalancing the glass pane on a pivot didn’t give the game away already: Unsuitable For All Ages Meat Crushing Sculpture and Kick Ass Nail Your Butt to the Wall and Lonely Ball Balloon (Evil & Twisted), being most recent/most sinister.