The Marquis de Sade was born on 2nd June 1740 and died on 2nd December 1814. He remains a figure much revered, despised and reproduced. He has become the cultural equivalent of a Hammer horror villain or Jack the Ripper. The epitome of extremism. To some a political thinker, critical of political figures such as Robespierre. To others, a libertine who transcended concepts of morality. There would be no concept of Sadism without the Marquis de Sade.
His biography makes for fascinating reading, his continual imprisonment for subversive works, but what has always intrigued me is how he remains a vital ingredient in the more extreme and subversive aspects of cultural expressionism. A Mickey Mouse figure for a generation of degenerates and thinkers. The proverbial straw that continues to break the camel's back.
I probably first encountered the Marquis de Sade, whilst at college in 1993. His philosophical views probably fascinated me as they would most young men. No restraint and no limits. A rebel who held the Government of his time to be detrimental and wanting. I remember deciding to try to find one of his works at Foyles. I should have been prepared for the reaction I received. Upon asking a shop assistant for The One Hundred Days of Sodom, I was pointed towards the adult books in the corner. The majority of his works were there with some of the most inappropriate covers I have ever seen. The front and back covers are full of female naked bodies cavorting with no faces apparent. The Arrow Books' edition cover illustration provided by John Geary. It's quite a nice illustration but not something you would proudly display on your journey to college or work. Looking again at my copy of the book, which is essentially a novel, I can spot my underlinings. Pencil underlinings were a feature of my days in education. They also provided a way for me to anchor myself in the material in a slightly more academic way. The novel can be read as an aid to arousal, if you are of a certain proclivity. I am open to ideas and enjoy the sense of engagement that a pencil provides. I do remember not finishing the novel. Basically, a group of aristocrats take themselves off to a chateau somewhere with an assortment of men, women and children. They subsequently perform any acts that take their fancy and assert strong rules. At certain points, they control the excremental habits of the people who have no control or function other than to serve the needs of the aristocrats. The novel is broken down into days and at times is hard to read owing to the atrocities committed. I will reread the novel soon to see if it impacts upon me in the same way as it did on a nineteen year old. Believe it or not, it does have interesting insights into human nature, Nature and religion.
Two quotes that give an insight into the extremity and unpleasantness of de Sade, but also the transgressive beauty of smashing the boundaries of human codes of morality can be found below:
"By and large, offer your fronts very little to our sight; remember that this loathsome part, which only the alienation of her wits could have permitted Nature to create, is always the one we find most repugnant."
(De Sade: Page 222)
'Let them be persuaded, these stupid creatures, let them henceforth be convinced that in all the world there are not twenty persons today who cling to this mad notion of God's existence, and that the religion he invokes is nothing but a fable ludicrously invented by cheats and impostors, whose interest in deceiving us is only too clear at the present time.'
(De Sade: Page 223)
Both of these quotes are taken from a section of the text that documents a speech given by the Duc de Blangis, an eighteen year old and one of the Masters in this narrative. The first pertaining to the rather derogatory attitude towards the vagina, which I continue to find intriguing. The seeming misogyny perhaps rather indicative of a wider disgust for procreation and human beings in general. The second quote is actually quite a reasonable assertion if you believe in nothing more substantial than your own existence or uphold atheist beliefs. My objection with de Sade is the abuse that his characters inflict upon each other. I also dislike the way that women are depicted. Having said that, political analogies can be drawn. Power relations always lean towards some form of exploitation. So in this respect, he preempts Marx's views and philosophy.
Now moving slightly forward in time, the Italian film director, Pasolini made a film version of the novel in 1975 as his final film. Salo or The 120 Days of Sodom remains one of the most controversial films ever made. It is still banned in certain countries. I saw it for the first time the other day at the BFI on the Southbank and as is always the case, when I view films that are so extreme that the media coverage surrounding them render them as rather intriguing Pandora's Boxes, I look at the audience demographic. If the audience is simply comprised of men, I feel like a pervert and my view of the film changes. Fortunately, the audience had a fair mix of men and women, so I still felt like a pervert but a pervert with aspirations of wholesome moral values, occasionally achieved. The film essentially takes the ideas of the original novel and places them in Italy around July 1943 after the fall of Benito Mussolini. Four corrupt fascist libertines kidnap and take off a group of eighteen teenage girls and boys, who they subsequently use and abuse in various manners. The libertines are accompanied by their new wives (they marry each others daughters). The film is structured around four chapters that relate to Dante's Inferno. It features every possible taboo that you can mention and the final chapter, 'The Circle of Blood' is amongst the most horrible sequences I have ever seen. As each of the libertines stares through binoculars from an upstairs window, he witnesses the punishment of each of the young people who broke the ground rules. I guess the punishment matches the proclivity of the libertine and include the application of a lighter to a boy's penis, a scalping and an eye gouging. Now, I am open to all ideas and find censorship largely abhorrent but the horror of the punishments was something else. Also earlier in the film, people are forced to eat excrement based on the fact that one of the older women remembers someone enjoying the experience of consuming excrement. The film is something else and ends with a waltz. Again, I was intrigued how the audience would respond. It seems customary to applaud at the conclusion of each film shown at the BFI. One or two people were tempted to clap but then stopped themselves. The conversation generated by this film exceeds the reaction to any other film I have seen. The film's saving grace is the strength and courage of its director. It is amazingly well made and leaves an indelible mark upon you after you have seen it.
The Marquis de Sade has also been depicted in two major stage plays, which have subsequently been remade as films. The most radical of these I saw this afternoon at the Rio in Dalston, the Marat Sade, which is the shortened version of the play and film's actual title, The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade. The play was written by Peter Weiss and originally directed on the stage by Peter Brook who also directed the film version. Believe it or not, the title of the play/film is precisely what the play/film is about. It is a very extreme and peculiar representation of a murder and the events surrounding it. The Marquis de Sade played by Herbert Lom moves the action along, whilst various representatives of the asylum and their families look on. The action takes place of a stage, which resembled a cage as bars occupy the front of the proscenium arch where normally, the audience would have an unrestricted view of the action. The play and film serve to illustrate the views of the Marquis de Sade, the repressive mechanisms in operation in mental institutions to prevent the outbreak of anarchy (the asylum workers intervene every time the inmates/actors get a bit carried away). The play/film after closing ends with the complete breakdown of normal values and codes of morality. A sado-masochistic orgy ensues. Glenda Jackson plays the eventual murderer of Marat, she also suffers from melancholia and sleep sickness. It's not a conventional film and play. Upon its stage production back in the 60s and even more recently in 2011 at Stratford Upon Avon, members of the audience walked out. I found the film engaging yet very stagy. Having said that, the feeling of anarchy and exhaustion that pervades the film and the staging gives it a sense of claustrophobia and perhaps allows a greater sense of empathy with the characters. The other major play about the Marquis de Sade was Quills and this also became a film with the Marquis de Sade played by Geoffrey Rush. The original play was written by Doug Wright. My memories of the film involve the Marquis de Sade incarcerated writing his incendiary manuscripts and getting other people to smuggle them out for him. It reminded me a lot of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. It's certainly the more accessible of the two films.
As a cultural figure, I have also bumped into the Marquis de Sade in comics (The Invisibles), in other plays (Madame de Sade - Yukio Mishima ) and in various literary criticism and novels. After all, just think where would the 'Mummy Porn' sensation, The Fifty Shades Trilogy by E.L. James be without the Marquis de Sade. He may have been extreme but at his heart, he helped to point out an essential truth, sexuality is not one dimensional. Also pleasure and pain are not mutually exclusive and for that perhaps, we should be grateful however grudgingly?
Barry Watt - 28th April 2013
Afterword
The quotes from 'The One Hundred Days of Sodom' are taken from the Arrow Books' edition, The One Hundred Days of Sodom and other writings (Arrow Books, 1990).
Salo or the 120 Days of Sodom (Pasolini, 1975) (Film available on DVD).
Dante's Inferno is the first part of Dante Alighieri's poem, The Divine Comedy.
Marat Sade (Peter Brook, 1967) (Film available on DVD. The play is by Peter Weiss).
Quills (Philip Kaufman, 2000) (Film available on DVD. The play is by Doug Wright.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (The novel is by Ken Kesey and the film was directed by Milos Forman in 1975. The film is available as a DVD).
The Invisibles (Comic written by Grant Morrison and published by DC Comics).
Madame de Sade (Play by Yukio Mishima).
The Fifty Shades Trilogy (Novels by E.L. James and published by Vintage Books).
Sunday 28 April 2013
Sunday 21 April 2013
The Barbican - A Sentimental Journey
As I notice the grey hairs popping up all over my head, I become increasingly aware of the passage of time. I age but I am left wondering whether buildings age in the same way? I guess they fall apart, organic growth gradually working on the cracks and deficiencies in concrete constructs, changing their form. But significantly, concepts whether we like them or not, do not age in the same way.
The Barbican Centre was designed in the Brutalist style by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon. The Southbank Centre is also an example of the same style. Think lots of concrete, stark angles, walkways that eventually get you where you need to get. Now at one stage, the Brutalist style would have driven me up the wall but as I become more conversant in various art styles, I have gradually adapted to and have a grudging respect for the very heavy and essentially 'cold' aesthetics of Brutalism. In fact, I now see it as emblematic of the spaces that it occupies. Could you imagine the Barbican area or the area around the Southbank in any other way now? It has helped to define the spaces.
Anyhow, back to the point, this blog entry is an exploration of the Barbican from a personal angle. Somehow, it has become the most important area of my life in the last few years. If the Barbican Centre and the Barbican area can be defined as intrically tied up with the architecture of the building and area, so too have I become involved in an almost symbiotic relationship with the Barbican Centre. It's almost a home away from home.
My first experience of the Barbican Centre was in 1997 when I graduated from the University of Greenwich. The graduation ceremony was held in the main Barbican Hall. My memories of the day are essentially sad. It marked a break from a really stressful yet profoundly life changing period in my life. Cobblers to childhood solely defining who you become as an adult, education and knowledge are not tied to any one age. We are always learning, not always the right things but experience is vital to personal growth. The graduation ceremony was an anti-climax after all of the all nighters, both working and socialising with friends (sometimes, both at the same time). I looked like a bizarre Matador wearing the mortar board and robe. Ceremonial garb is always more relevant at the time than looked at retrospectively. As the University of Greenwich were probably adopting a minimalist style to the ceremony, not dissimilar to the Barbican Centre and its functional Brutalist architecture, the Graduates and their guests were each allowed one drink post ceremony then that was it. Three years for what? A single glass of something. Then off we all went in our separate directions with only a small number of contact details of the people that we had met. Also I am sure that I got lost finding my way back to the Tube station.
From that point onwards, I think I pretty much forgot the Barbican until 2010. 2010 was the year I joined the social networking site, Citysocialising, which is now known as Citysocializing (don't ask, I will only confuse you). Now as people who know me will tell you, everything changed when I joined this website. I attended a couple of events where I really felt uncomfortable. Then I attended my friend Rachel's event, which was the Open House Day in 2010 (we attended various Government buildings) and finally decided to host my own event. I don't know how or why but I stumbled on the fact that the Barbican was going to be showing the Pasolini film, Teorema. Now, anyone who knows the film will wonder why I chose this film to host? It stars Terence Stamp as a strange character who comes into a dysfunctional family, changes their lives then leaves. Each of the characters then suffers the repercussions of his departure. Think of the film as Mary Poppins in reverse! I met a couple of people who were intrepid enough to sign up and a friend came along. I was surprisingly a better host than I imagined I could be. After the film, we went to the Barbican Lounge, which is a Tapas style restaurant. The service was slow, the company was good and audible arguments seemed to be coming from the kitchen (I hasten to add that the Barbican Lounge is much much better now). Apparently, we were told it was a new Chef and the Barbican Lounge gave us money off the bill for the inconvenience (two of the group waited over an hour for the first of the dishes to appear).
The Barbican cinema (now cinemas) has become one of my favourite venues for CS events. I have warm memories of Black Swan, seeing the film then following it up with a hastily purchased bottle of wine (the Barbican Centre bar closes quite early owing presumably to the fact that it is in the middle of a residential area). Rachel's very funny comment about Paddy Ashdown and his resemblance to Indiana Jones, which has corrupted my image of the politician for all time.
So that this doesn't go on all day, the Barbican Centre is like my favourite pick and mix. It has everything. It enjoys seasons where it links the films and theatre productions to the exhibitions in the Art Gallery. Currently, I am enjoying the Dancing around Duchamp season, which has involved The Bride and the Bachelors ' exhibition in the Art Gallery (which on Thursdays and at the weekend involves live dance), a series of related theatrical events and films too. As such, I have had the pleasure of attending an Absolute Dada event that resulted in my friend, Susan being invited on stage with another lady to entertain the audience for five minutes at the beginning of the performance followed by equally memorable sections including a professional musician playing one of John Cage's performances on a red toy piano and a guy playing meaningless folk songs in front of a back projection of a male penis erecting.
If anything this blog entry is as much a celebration of the great friends I have met and enticed to come along to see various productions at the Barbican. Susan, Rachel, Ros, Pernille, Zahira and everyone else I salute you all for your attendance. The Barbican is the arts centre for people who like to be challenged, entertained and stimulated. The Barbican is better than sex and chocolate. Discuss...
Barry Watt - 21st April 2013
The Barbican Centre was designed in the Brutalist style by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon. The Southbank Centre is also an example of the same style. Think lots of concrete, stark angles, walkways that eventually get you where you need to get. Now at one stage, the Brutalist style would have driven me up the wall but as I become more conversant in various art styles, I have gradually adapted to and have a grudging respect for the very heavy and essentially 'cold' aesthetics of Brutalism. In fact, I now see it as emblematic of the spaces that it occupies. Could you imagine the Barbican area or the area around the Southbank in any other way now? It has helped to define the spaces.
Anyhow, back to the point, this blog entry is an exploration of the Barbican from a personal angle. Somehow, it has become the most important area of my life in the last few years. If the Barbican Centre and the Barbican area can be defined as intrically tied up with the architecture of the building and area, so too have I become involved in an almost symbiotic relationship with the Barbican Centre. It's almost a home away from home.
My first experience of the Barbican Centre was in 1997 when I graduated from the University of Greenwich. The graduation ceremony was held in the main Barbican Hall. My memories of the day are essentially sad. It marked a break from a really stressful yet profoundly life changing period in my life. Cobblers to childhood solely defining who you become as an adult, education and knowledge are not tied to any one age. We are always learning, not always the right things but experience is vital to personal growth. The graduation ceremony was an anti-climax after all of the all nighters, both working and socialising with friends (sometimes, both at the same time). I looked like a bizarre Matador wearing the mortar board and robe. Ceremonial garb is always more relevant at the time than looked at retrospectively. As the University of Greenwich were probably adopting a minimalist style to the ceremony, not dissimilar to the Barbican Centre and its functional Brutalist architecture, the Graduates and their guests were each allowed one drink post ceremony then that was it. Three years for what? A single glass of something. Then off we all went in our separate directions with only a small number of contact details of the people that we had met. Also I am sure that I got lost finding my way back to the Tube station.
From that point onwards, I think I pretty much forgot the Barbican until 2010. 2010 was the year I joined the social networking site, Citysocialising, which is now known as Citysocializing (don't ask, I will only confuse you). Now as people who know me will tell you, everything changed when I joined this website. I attended a couple of events where I really felt uncomfortable. Then I attended my friend Rachel's event, which was the Open House Day in 2010 (we attended various Government buildings) and finally decided to host my own event. I don't know how or why but I stumbled on the fact that the Barbican was going to be showing the Pasolini film, Teorema. Now, anyone who knows the film will wonder why I chose this film to host? It stars Terence Stamp as a strange character who comes into a dysfunctional family, changes their lives then leaves. Each of the characters then suffers the repercussions of his departure. Think of the film as Mary Poppins in reverse! I met a couple of people who were intrepid enough to sign up and a friend came along. I was surprisingly a better host than I imagined I could be. After the film, we went to the Barbican Lounge, which is a Tapas style restaurant. The service was slow, the company was good and audible arguments seemed to be coming from the kitchen (I hasten to add that the Barbican Lounge is much much better now). Apparently, we were told it was a new Chef and the Barbican Lounge gave us money off the bill for the inconvenience (two of the group waited over an hour for the first of the dishes to appear).
The Barbican cinema (now cinemas) has become one of my favourite venues for CS events. I have warm memories of Black Swan, seeing the film then following it up with a hastily purchased bottle of wine (the Barbican Centre bar closes quite early owing presumably to the fact that it is in the middle of a residential area). Rachel's very funny comment about Paddy Ashdown and his resemblance to Indiana Jones, which has corrupted my image of the politician for all time.
So that this doesn't go on all day, the Barbican Centre is like my favourite pick and mix. It has everything. It enjoys seasons where it links the films and theatre productions to the exhibitions in the Art Gallery. Currently, I am enjoying the Dancing around Duchamp season, which has involved The Bride and the Bachelors ' exhibition in the Art Gallery (which on Thursdays and at the weekend involves live dance), a series of related theatrical events and films too. As such, I have had the pleasure of attending an Absolute Dada event that resulted in my friend, Susan being invited on stage with another lady to entertain the audience for five minutes at the beginning of the performance followed by equally memorable sections including a professional musician playing one of John Cage's performances on a red toy piano and a guy playing meaningless folk songs in front of a back projection of a male penis erecting.
If anything this blog entry is as much a celebration of the great friends I have met and enticed to come along to see various productions at the Barbican. Susan, Rachel, Ros, Pernille, Zahira and everyone else I salute you all for your attendance. The Barbican is the arts centre for people who like to be challenged, entertained and stimulated. The Barbican is better than sex and chocolate. Discuss...
Barry Watt - 21st April 2013
Sunday 7 April 2013
Okay, where did I leave my concrete flower? An appreciation of modern art.
On my travels, I seem to go to a number of very interesting art exhibitions. Sometimes, I am overwhelmed and inspired to do something creative, which is rarely realised immediately but lies like a seed, waiting for the requisite succulence to grow.
Anyway, since the beginning of the year, I have finally and belatedly realised that I have a predilection for modern art in its myriad forms. I do not mind seeing other art styles but somehow, I have always considered artists who attempt to capture 'reality in its true form' to be rather missing the point. A flower in a vase on a table can be painted in a variety of styles but essentially, the artist's feelings and interests must imbue and/or taint the representation of the object(s).
The three most recent modern art exhibitions I have attended, the A Bigger Splash: Painting after Performance exhibition at the Tate Modern, the Schwitters In Britain exhibition at the Tate Britain and the Bernadette Corporation: 2000 Wasted Years at the ICA are all manifestations of different forms of modern art. Out of the three exhibitions, the Schwitters in Britain exhibition is perhaps, the most 'conventional'. Kurt Schwitters' work takes the form of collages of found objects, sculptures, installations and recordings of staged performances of his poetry, which is essentially phonetic. Repeated words and sounds captured for eternity on scratchy recording devices. Vinyl mementos transferred to digital technology, so they can be shared forever. In many respects, Schwitters' work embodies the life of an exile, a man who chose to leave Germany in 1937 after his work was condemned by the Nazi Government, it resonates with a sense of nostalgia and occasionally sadness. Railway tickets and bits of adverts and wood punctuate many of his collages. They trace his life and travels. He created a word to describe his work, 'Merz'.
As Schwitters described in 1919:
'The word Merz denotes essentially the combination of all conceivable materials
for artistic purposes, and technically the principle of equal evaluation of the
individual materials... A perambulator wheel, wire-netting, string and cotton wool
are factors having equal rights with paint.'
(Kurt Schwitters 1919 - Reprinted in Tate Britain Exhibition Booklet)
One of his works which he sadly never finished was a Merz Barn in the Lake District, which now consists of just a single wall, which is at the Hatton Gallery. There is a time line at the exhibition explaining the oddly involved world of art acquisition with its deals and messy incomplete transactions. The exhibition has stills of the wall as it was created. It truly is an intriguing combination of elements. Curves and lines, strange profusions. Please see the following link for an image of the wall and more information.
http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/hatton-gallery/collections/kurt-schwitters-and-the-merzbarn-wall.html
The exhibition was surprisingly moving and collage as an art form is very versatile and engaging. It also has a tactile quality. Of course, touching the works is not encouraged, but the possibility of creating works for people to touch appeals to me.
The A Bigger Splash: Painting after Performance exhibition at the Tate Britain which I attended on the same day as the above exhibition demonstrated the more visceral and confrontational nature of modern art. The exhibition was about artists who are interested in the processes of creation as opposed to focusing too intently on the finished product. As such, a film in the first room is projected above a piece by Jackson Pollock revealing how he created works. Essentially, splashing paint onto a canvas. Lines and drips cascading across a blank canvas. Squiggles of differing colours representing the artist's aesthetic dance. The finished work like a captured memory of a dance with a creative muse. The other works in the exhibition ranged from the oddly beautiful, one work involved different people shooting sacks of paint which were suspended over a canvas and then punctured by gun shots causing the paint to splatter the canvas (Niki de Saint Phalle) to truly bizarre works involving ritual, performance and bodily fluids such as blood (the Vienna Actionists). Many of the works are films, which are documents of a form of creativity that grabs you by the throat. I left the exhibition feeling exhilarated and changed. It made me want to get a group of people together and do something in that moment. This leads to an interesting question does modern art age that well? It's a rhetorical question but worth thinking about as certain inter textual references become oblique or forgotten. Having said that, other forms of art can also be seen as ageing and are kept in the public eye by academics and curators putting on exhibitions to remind or impose their meanings upon the works of art.
The last art exhibition I am going to talk about in this blog entry is the Bernadette Corporation: 2000 Wasted Years at the ICA. The Bernadette Corporation seem to be an organisation that creates works through the exploitation of various mediums. They are ironic, postmodern in their references, political and above all, hard to define. Their BC logo rendering them as meaningful as any other corporation. They have put on fashion shows in deserted warehouses, created narratives by multiple authors. Most amusingly to me, they have created 'versions' of popular books such as 'Moby Dick', which are simply academic break downs of the narratives, subjective reactions to the texts. A comment on a generation more intent on reading study guides than the original texts? I loved the exhibition for the sheer craziness of the material on offer. How do you describe a constantly changing organisation that is inspired by everything? The ICA has done as good a job as you can and it's fascinating to me the number of negative reviews that the exhibition has received. I think that the reviewers are missing the point and it could be that living artists are harder to represent than dead ones. Careers are harder to categorise and represent when the creative team remains fluid.
To close, I recommend all three of the exhibitions (although, sadly, the A Bigger Splash exhibition has finished, although I guess it may move somewhere else). Each of these exhibitions has illustrated to me the importance of modern art. I like to be challenged and stimulated. Modern art is the stimuli for the occasional mundanity and heroic stoicism of everyday life.
Barry Watt - Sunday 7th April 2013.
Afterword
The Schwitters quote was extracted from the Schwitters In Britain exhibition guide (Tate Britain, 2013)
For more information on the Bernadette Corporation, please see their website:
http://www.bernadettecorporation.com/
Anyway, since the beginning of the year, I have finally and belatedly realised that I have a predilection for modern art in its myriad forms. I do not mind seeing other art styles but somehow, I have always considered artists who attempt to capture 'reality in its true form' to be rather missing the point. A flower in a vase on a table can be painted in a variety of styles but essentially, the artist's feelings and interests must imbue and/or taint the representation of the object(s).
The three most recent modern art exhibitions I have attended, the A Bigger Splash: Painting after Performance exhibition at the Tate Modern, the Schwitters In Britain exhibition at the Tate Britain and the Bernadette Corporation: 2000 Wasted Years at the ICA are all manifestations of different forms of modern art. Out of the three exhibitions, the Schwitters in Britain exhibition is perhaps, the most 'conventional'. Kurt Schwitters' work takes the form of collages of found objects, sculptures, installations and recordings of staged performances of his poetry, which is essentially phonetic. Repeated words and sounds captured for eternity on scratchy recording devices. Vinyl mementos transferred to digital technology, so they can be shared forever. In many respects, Schwitters' work embodies the life of an exile, a man who chose to leave Germany in 1937 after his work was condemned by the Nazi Government, it resonates with a sense of nostalgia and occasionally sadness. Railway tickets and bits of adverts and wood punctuate many of his collages. They trace his life and travels. He created a word to describe his work, 'Merz'.
As Schwitters described in 1919:
'The word Merz denotes essentially the combination of all conceivable materials
for artistic purposes, and technically the principle of equal evaluation of the
individual materials... A perambulator wheel, wire-netting, string and cotton wool
are factors having equal rights with paint.'
(Kurt Schwitters 1919 - Reprinted in Tate Britain Exhibition Booklet)
One of his works which he sadly never finished was a Merz Barn in the Lake District, which now consists of just a single wall, which is at the Hatton Gallery. There is a time line at the exhibition explaining the oddly involved world of art acquisition with its deals and messy incomplete transactions. The exhibition has stills of the wall as it was created. It truly is an intriguing combination of elements. Curves and lines, strange profusions. Please see the following link for an image of the wall and more information.
http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/hatton-gallery/collections/kurt-schwitters-and-the-merzbarn-wall.html
The exhibition was surprisingly moving and collage as an art form is very versatile and engaging. It also has a tactile quality. Of course, touching the works is not encouraged, but the possibility of creating works for people to touch appeals to me.
The A Bigger Splash: Painting after Performance exhibition at the Tate Britain which I attended on the same day as the above exhibition demonstrated the more visceral and confrontational nature of modern art. The exhibition was about artists who are interested in the processes of creation as opposed to focusing too intently on the finished product. As such, a film in the first room is projected above a piece by Jackson Pollock revealing how he created works. Essentially, splashing paint onto a canvas. Lines and drips cascading across a blank canvas. Squiggles of differing colours representing the artist's aesthetic dance. The finished work like a captured memory of a dance with a creative muse. The other works in the exhibition ranged from the oddly beautiful, one work involved different people shooting sacks of paint which were suspended over a canvas and then punctured by gun shots causing the paint to splatter the canvas (Niki de Saint Phalle) to truly bizarre works involving ritual, performance and bodily fluids such as blood (the Vienna Actionists). Many of the works are films, which are documents of a form of creativity that grabs you by the throat. I left the exhibition feeling exhilarated and changed. It made me want to get a group of people together and do something in that moment. This leads to an interesting question does modern art age that well? It's a rhetorical question but worth thinking about as certain inter textual references become oblique or forgotten. Having said that, other forms of art can also be seen as ageing and are kept in the public eye by academics and curators putting on exhibitions to remind or impose their meanings upon the works of art.
The last art exhibition I am going to talk about in this blog entry is the Bernadette Corporation: 2000 Wasted Years at the ICA. The Bernadette Corporation seem to be an organisation that creates works through the exploitation of various mediums. They are ironic, postmodern in their references, political and above all, hard to define. Their BC logo rendering them as meaningful as any other corporation. They have put on fashion shows in deserted warehouses, created narratives by multiple authors. Most amusingly to me, they have created 'versions' of popular books such as 'Moby Dick', which are simply academic break downs of the narratives, subjective reactions to the texts. A comment on a generation more intent on reading study guides than the original texts? I loved the exhibition for the sheer craziness of the material on offer. How do you describe a constantly changing organisation that is inspired by everything? The ICA has done as good a job as you can and it's fascinating to me the number of negative reviews that the exhibition has received. I think that the reviewers are missing the point and it could be that living artists are harder to represent than dead ones. Careers are harder to categorise and represent when the creative team remains fluid.
To close, I recommend all three of the exhibitions (although, sadly, the A Bigger Splash exhibition has finished, although I guess it may move somewhere else). Each of these exhibitions has illustrated to me the importance of modern art. I like to be challenged and stimulated. Modern art is the stimuli for the occasional mundanity and heroic stoicism of everyday life.
Barry Watt - Sunday 7th April 2013.
Afterword
The Schwitters quote was extracted from the Schwitters In Britain exhibition guide (Tate Britain, 2013)
For more information on the Bernadette Corporation, please see their website:
http://www.bernadettecorporation.com/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)