exhibition reviews
1 Hyundai Commission: One Two Three Swing! Superflex
Collective action and social purpose inspire the Danish art trio Superflex, whose new work once again transforms Tate’s Turbine Hall into a playground, in a similar way to Carsten Höller’s 2006 commission, Test Site, which famously brought a series of slides to the space for viewers to experience. This time, the artists invite visitors to populate one of the many three-person swings that pepper the hall and its surrounding areas, all interconnected by an orange line that flows out of Tate Modern’s south entrance. Carpeted in graphic stripes the colours of British banknotes, the imposing downward slope covering half of the Turbine Hall represents “apathy” as a giant pendulum swings hypnotically overhead. The lower level, with its multiple swings, represents “movement”, whilst buried in the far north-eastern corner is “production”, where the swings are assembled and stamped (though presumably
not actually produced) before their installation. Observers are told that if enough people swing together then the course of the pendulum will shift and change accordingly. The purpose of the space is to “challenge society’s apathy towards the political, environmental and economic crises of our age”, and indeed, the experience does offer a sense of connectivity that is perhaps much needed in today’s existential and geographical spheres. However, a sense of novelty also prevails above these more politicised undertones, where the theme gives way to physicality, and the importance of the immediate bodily experience outweighs the broader conceptual dimensions. Just as Tate’s previous commissions, the project proves to be overwhelmingly popular from both angles, offering a platform for collective reception and enjoyment; something to be truly celebrated within the artistic world.
Words Ruby Beesley
Tate Modern, London 3 October - 2 April www.tate.org.uk
2 Archive
Felicity Mccabe
Juxtaposed with East London’s street art, Felicity McCabe’s site-specific installation is glossy, bold and ethereal. The four images on view have been selected from her series Archive, which explores the creation of new works through a technique of abstracting from archival photographs. Fragments of the original source can be traced, with key links between them that are found in the images’ titles. McCabe has taken this opportunity of showing at the Great Eastern Wall Gallery to produce a project inspired by the surrounding area and its history, particularly the era after the Blitz. Twisted barbed wire punctuates a modern, minimalistic backdrop in East End, March 1946, referencing a post-war photograph which was taken nearby. In Christmas Street, December 1946, the open door mirrors the original Charles Hewitt image, with the light casting an eerie glow despite the use of a rosy-hued filter. Milky blues are depicted in Leman Street Club, July 1949,
a bleached interpretation of a Jamaican snooker club and a nod to the greater issues of integration and race in the area and in wider post-war society. The fourth photograph on display here, Work as Usual, September 1940, portrays jagged shards of broken glass, reflecting an enchanting spectrum whilst drawing on the significance of its source, a Bill Hardy image of a woman working in a tailoring shop that has had its window smashed during an air raid. The fluidity of the movement from archival to present in an abstract sense conveys issues which are both apt and timely. The fear of war, racial and gender inequality, and everyday challenges are, unfortunately, still relevant today. McCabe uses memory, with its own subjectivity and falsehoods, as a key element to form and inform her works. Displayed on the street, each measuring four metres by four metres, her photographs offer a dynamic perspective on our minds as well as on matters of place and time.
Words Ashton Chandler Guyatt
Great Eastern Wall Gallery, London 14 September - 15 January www.greateasternwall gallery.com
3 Infinity Mirrors Yayoi Kusama
Wit and wonder draw audiences into the existential realm of Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929), a visual, installation and performance artist whose move from her native Japan to New York saw her become a leading figure in the Western avant-garde and 1960s counter-culture of political activism. The latest edition of Infinity Mirrors presents six reflective rooms, large-scale installations, drawings, paintings and sculptures that define the 60-year plus career of the artist. The exhibition presents a mind-altering journey through the concepts of fantasy and self-discovery, which are inherent in Kusama’s oeuvre, as she explores the themes of the individual’s relationship with infinity and with “radical connectivity – creating power through networks of people.” The interactive spaces of the exhibition offer a liminal experience in reflexivity that captures the phenomenology of existence and the creative imagination. In the process, the viewer becomes a participant in media, mirror and message
132 Aesthetica
amidst a virtual, generated landscape of dots and delights. The audience enters and exits each mirrored room or viewing chamber in 30-second intervals to be faced with a mise-en-scène of mirrors, lights, soft sculpture and mixed media elements that are then reflected exponentially to transform the room into an expanded field of continuum. Some key installations from the artist’s career on view here include Infinity Mirrored Rooms: Phalli’s Field, (Kusama’s first, originally shown in Floor Show, Castellane Gallery, New York, 1965); Love Forever, 1966; Dots Obsession – Love Transformed into Dots, 2007; Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity, 2009; The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away, 2013; and All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins, 2016. The latter is the only site where cameras are not allowed, a small sacrifice, given the free-flowing imagery from this immersive show, can be captured by the public and shared enthusiastically on global media platforms.
Words Jill Thayer
The Broad, Los Angeles 21 October - 1 January www.thebroad.org