My, my, my.... what an exhibition! Apparently 2 years in the making, this showcase consists among other things, 30 tonnes of blood red wax. I think this is a very playful and bemusing collection of works that does manage to make you question the role of the institution, artist and you the viewer in the making of great works of art. A bit like Alice in Wonderland, the various installation pieces evoke a certain playfulness. The gory bit or should I say messy bit is - 2007 Shooting the Corner. This employs wax, time and power to make it work in the space. A strange canon sits alongside a wall of wax bullets waiting to catch the enemy unaware. Every twenty minutes a black boiler suited attendant (who looks a splitting image of Tom Welling (of Smallville fame)) dutifully performs the silent ritual of filling the paint canon. Pistons sound, pressure builds and then just as you have started to drift off with the hum of the engine ‘bang ‘ a red wax bullet shots across the room defecating the white walls and gilded stucco of the museum with blood red wax. Messy...
The hall of mirrors is rather humorous. In this room and in every reflective edge of each work you meet you, the viewer, reflected again and again. The first image you see is you entering the room in a Hitchcookesque rear view mirror shaped wave of stainless steel that is aptly called Vertigo. Step around it and in this view the room is turned upside down whilst you shrink and float in the space. Whilst Non Object (Door) splits your reflection squarely down the middle and has you wondering how the magician managed it with his clever techniques for bending reality and materials. Think these make great collectible items especially if you have a large estate.
My favourite bit? When I am pregnant installation. Beautiful. Amazing.
The exhibition runs till 11 December. What are you waiting for?
Photos courtesy of Royal Academy
No comments:
Post a Comment