This exhibition spans 5 different locations, but I'm only reviewing the installations at St Pauls.
The gallery had 3 installations in the one space, one could be forgiven for missing at least 2 of them. My first impression as someone not attuned to such things is that it was completely incomprehensible, but in an attempt to broaden my horizons, I will do my best to interpret what I saw.
Walking into the space one is greeted with 3 delicately balanced part-of wooden chairs dangling from a beam that is attached to the ceiling. The piece Suspended fall challenges the observer to make sense of it. It's so sparse. From a craftsman-like perspective one wonders just how deliberate each sawn of piece of the chair and it's placement is, or does it not matter as long as the basic idea is communicated? And what is this basic idea? One has to explore how it makes one feel (aside from the usual bewilderment). It's hard to get past the "what on earth..." thoughts though. It makes no sense. Chairs. No, cut up chair pieces. Dangling from a ceiling. Perhaps a chair, an everyday object, sliced up and dangled, removed from any sensible context is the statement. What of the title, "Suspended Fall"? Does this provide any clues? Perhaps there is some commentary on our throwaway society. A moment in time, suspended, and the chair not so much falling but thrown away as junk. It served it's purpose, perhaps it could have served some more, but we throw things away so much that now we even throw away things before their time is up for a new one. And now the chair is an art installation. From something obviously worthless to something people come to see.
The second installation was above my head and I missed it the first time I visited the exhibition, I thought it just wasn't installed. The floor space is empty. Above providing the light for the room is Some Broken Morning, an arrangement of flouresent lights spun into what looks like a web. Or perhaps as the name suggests to me, a sunrise. My morning would certainly feel broken if my sunrise was in an office where one normally finds these lights. This is my personal interpretation, it reminds me of working long, long hours, into the night and over to the morning in some job, and as the sun rises, I'm still under the horrible artificial office light. Some research suggests that it's about taking objects out of their normal logical context. I like my interpretation much better actually. It speaks to me more.
The last installation also almost missed because it's so small on a large bare wall, and it looks like it's part of the wall, like it serves some purpose. Like a fire extinguisher or more like... a lamp with an odd lampshade attached. Eyes like Leaves perhaps resembles a mailbox, or a cutaway of some outdoor structure that has been displayed in the hallway of some architecture firm or school. It's painted steel and brass, the steel is perforated sheet metal. The name conjures up certain feelings and there is something perhaps organic about the piece, but beyond that I find it very hard to break this piece down further.
The installations were interesting in that they were incredibly challenging to an amateur art critic (to say the least) to interpret. One could easily write them off for not understanding them, but perhaps this is why they warrant further investigation. I actually found it amusing and later interesting that the gallery looked like nothing was really installed in the space. One questions how much the space that they were installed in played a part to the experience. The concrete floor, the white walls. Certainly they would not be the same piece if they were installed in your living room.
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