The performance evening was last night and everything went incredibly smoothly! Unfortunately Nina was ill so wasn’t able to attend so her tug of war probably wasn’t as well performed as it might have been but the other three live works went down really well. Seeing Johanna’s sculptures activated very much completed them; they’re beautiful objects but seeing them put into action definitely assisted with the interpretation. Having Anaïs tell her stories last was a great idea; everyone sat on the benches, we dimmed the lights, it was perfect! Can’t thank the artists and the space enough for assisting in putting on such a great show.
Just as promised we made some time to see art. We went to the Vinyl Factory on The Strand which is currently housing ‘EVERYTHING AT ONCE’ which is the Lisson Gallery 50 year anniversary show. There’s also Ryoji Ikeda’s newly commissioned A/V artwork test pattern [N°12]. The Lisson exhibition is probably a 6/10. Being able to see such a range of work in such a crazy building is amazing but when you end up making excuses as to why what’s happening is good you know it can’t be THAT good…There seemed to be little to no effort put into creating a flow or even a tenuous link between the works. The only one being the fact that all the artists show with the gallery, it is literally just everything at once, and one thing after another. The saving grace was Arthur Jafa’s ‘Love Is the Message, the Message Is Death’, a gritty compilation of found footage – Jimi Hendrix and James Brown, LA Riots, brutal beatings and shootings, the inequalities and racism of America – set to Kanye West’s, gospel-inspired Ultralight Beam. It’s the timeliest thing in the building, condensing time, place and history, giving us it all at once. Being able to watch this is worth the trip alone.
Ryoji Ikeda’s work was exciting if not a little bizarre and not because of the work itself. Usually we’re not the ones telling everyone to turn off their phones or stop taking photos in galleries; it doesn’t tend to bother us as much as others. However, in this scenario it felt incredibly strange that people would walk in on their phones, camera out, have it out the entire time taking a variety of selfies, then walk right out again without putting the device down. Are we getting old? This feels like a work that is experienced best through just that; experiencing it. Expect to see many new profile pictures Facebook drenched in monochrome binary patterns.
