Art
nés‘am'me TROCKEL: RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION
Tramway. Glasgow, until Sun 31 Oct
Rosemarie Trockel, the Cologne-based multimedia polymath, is perhaps best known for her examination of the role of women, both in the art world and wider society. She has returned often to iconic images of feminine perfection, and appropriates objects traditionally associated with women, edging them out of a domestic context and into the gallery, a space as male-dominated as any other.
Her work isn‘t, though, clumsy agitprop, nor does it comfortably fit into a feminist straightjacket. Instead, Trockel’s approach is a slippery one, avoiding didactic statements in favour of multifaceted works that, more often than not, prompt a complex series of questions with quick visual quips. The best, and best known, example of this bold-but-tentative approach is Trockel's painting machine. An assembly of wires and rollers, the machine uses brushes fashioned from locks of hair donated by Trockel's contemporaries, including Sigmar Polke and Georg Baselitz, to mark paper. First, if not foremost, it’s a giggle, but look just past
Seven Walks by Nahuum Tevet
the joke, and everything from the commodification of art to male domination of the artistic sphere rears its ugly head.
Delving further into the maleness of mechanisation, Trockel's knitted paintings are similarly layered, incorporating and repeating familiar signs - the Woolmark, the Playboy bunny. They offer an ironic twist to knitting's domestic associations, reimagining ‘female' piecework as ‘male’ mass production, and repositioning the medium as high art, not low craft. All the while, Trockel refuses to be pinned down. Her refusal to stick with a medium results in a bewildering breadth of practice - drawing and painting, photography and video, sculpture and assemblage. By eschewing variation and sequential development of her themes, Trockel ends up absenting herself from the work, making it hard to ascribe motives, which in turn lends her already gag-heavy work a further layer of irony, a detachment that defies again the immediate, easy interpretation of it as political, feminist statements.
Tramway’s Trockel retrospective looks set, then, to be a tricky proposition, full of work that hides dense investigation behind a deceptively simple facade - get ready to look long and hard, laughing as you go. (Jack Mottram)
Untitled (1978) by Rosemarie Trockel
HENRY MOORE’S RECLINING FIGURE 1951 by John Fardell
Walking) Elk)th tho Wator ol l oith to tho National (‘xallory r it Morlorn Art I; ()llt' r it tin-
tjroat joyf; ol t <lrnt>nrtjh lilo anrl jiiitr. mo Ill a j)ffllf?(il tramoot minrl to .ljtjllt'tilgllt' tho «jallor‘,'r; throo lf‘lllllllllt] llonn, Mooro litjuroo. Yon t?ll(j()lllltt.‘l tho trr:;t, .I nrrjrioi
man trouro. at tho top ot tho ‘.‘.roo(lo(l stops. lhon, as; you round tho front mornonr
of tho hinltlrngj you moot llllf; (?()ltll£l‘;llll(_) lomalo ono who"; hoon rojrosutronorl :srnoo llllf‘» l)()f;l(7;ll(t photo um“. takonl.
It)(}ll(?\’(l‘ Mooro‘f; ohs; moron wrth toolinrng human lrrjnroi; sprang; lrom lllf; tamoni; (irawrnrjz; ot pooplo s;holtor'rh<_j from tho Bllt/ on I onrlon llnrlorrjroiinrl platforrrra. and I think llllf; St'llllillllt} SHANE; tho (jroat humanity of thoao f‘.kot(;llo‘,. this; l'(?(il|ll|lttl lltllllt,‘ lookt; oxotr<: hut tho sculpturo't; hoauty <;omo:; (lirortly out of Mooro's; aoirto ohaorvatron ot tho orrlrnary human lor'm. Ho's, parorl lltlltlll of tho- lrgirro (town to tho lrnos; ol orawty anrl thrust which nnrlorpin tll'tféll (lrawrnij: tho woioht ot hor mhonltlor‘f; ahovo hor olhows; tho throat ol hor nhr;arjo; tho way hor
INfllAl Al A \N ERGIN oAvusocLu DCA, Dundee .00
NAHUUM TEVET DCA, Dundee .00.
“to liklr‘lx r;ii'oori (loot; not |()()l\ atxoii: lttjtl.'t‘f§_tlltt1lll
't ntarrtjlornor‘t' l“. t ltllll (QAXUSUHIH. .1 l orrilon lxlsod l‘lrrloanan artist. tux titT't‘t‘ltf; z-nx'olojt anti n‘.on.1<‘o tho fl'lt‘lltft‘it \tox'.'or lll polioorl tlartx'totu; lho lon'. thvtlrn ot a llt?:rl‘x‘ltit‘l \.'.ar:ho:: oyor tho glillri‘“, .intl swoona lhrt; novtor'ro oxokou a now Lirhan airl‘i r‘to. tho ‘.ro\'.'or it; tho trowv. tho swoon If; tho
unwrittao
l tho 11”“? from tho 'i‘ootorr; walls \ou In and out of a ruininoctl oxr:;ton<‘o. whoro t"o::o honor mm or trim not ho ‘.‘.'tl'.x"tllltl \oo, Tho rornanflcrszrn of a hlitrknoo r‘or'noatos. \‘uhoro light IS tlanooroos lll a hlat‘lxotl out t‘Llltlu" or thrilling In tho
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\‘rrroma. tom and Mt‘rtomont. \ioath anti :iuttottatott sox Hoop along tho gallom tloor. All lights aro :§\‘.II(‘.tt(‘,(l on in Nahum Temt's 'Soven Walks. out tho rows of war and failed
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92 THE LIST 8-3: ' 3.“. ‘.‘.¥1
onor'mot :; f§l)£t(:(} of tho gamma and tho vrowor moat nogotrato tho aosthotroally or'oanraorl (:haos.
This; vast installation prosonts; rtsoll at; an oxploratron ol ouro ooomotnt: lorm, r‘otomng; won,» (:los;o|y to l_lf§f3|lf§k\,"f3 ‘l’r'onn' rooms; anrl Riotx'okl'r; .‘Ir'tthrtooturo. 'lho spaoo hotwoon forms; rs; shown to ho tho vorx roal soaoo ot o\'or'\,'<la\,r roalrty hilt who wants; to lrvo In a houso ot (:ar'rls; fro/on rn otornal (:<)llar>:;o';‘ So. Ullf‘» work lrntlt; its; homo In tho f3(lll(itlllll of tho gallon, or mosoum, Toxot (jiiroth hut normstonth r'omrnrlss or: that mo<lorn::;m (tan somotrmot; rosomhio a oloss; paintoil junkyard. whoro oootl rntontiont; hooomo had :ooas.
Tovot prosontt; this; conundrum ambivalent“. ; nil l\l'|(7.tl|\. His: ltdll'J“ To' Mr. rs; rich in tho (lltTl‘~lt‘(fitll‘.> o‘ Illé' rntorrmtronal stxlo. ".‘rxhor'o floating; pianos; moot l" ror‘fot‘t oooiooirw and irnos ar<> .15; war, as a stool odoo ~ a otoosan (:ll‘. bome out of the tiCStFuCtiC/‘l‘, o‘ WWII and Still ravaged by wotence and rntOIerance. rAlex Kennedy
Skill lros; slung; hotwoon hor' MINES.
llovo thrt; t;<:nlt;ttir'o hooaiiwo you can tool tho hraln anrl llitlttlf; anrl Imagination ’)l tho {ll'iltSi at Work. It's; riot a statomont. it's; an oxoloration, ono ho <;ontrnno:; lll tho lt?(l|ll‘.iltt} tirjiir‘o l)()f;lll().'ti?il by, tho horlrling'f; front door lf;iiroly tho aamo womanr lint onougjh u‘xoroa: its a s;<tnir)tnr'ol Bottor to ()0 and oxoloro rt tor yonrsoll.
Hon/y Moo/o}; Hots/rhino from») 795] (:an ho soon at Tho Nat/on.'1/ (Ml/ow of I'M/(Morn Art. ff) Homo/(f Hoar}, [Urnhur‘q/r, (£24 (5200. John Ian/ol/ (,‘ro.'rto(/ 'tho Morton) Parontx' for Vr/ and ‘.t’/’.'t,‘.‘; and draws tho ‘Br/roau of Odd/tux," Til/If) for Tho I rat. Hr}; from t,‘h/r’</,'orr':; hoot, [ho Sovon /-’rofo:;f;orr; of tho liar North. r7; puh/mhorr hr Fahor (‘5 Fahor o," ()r,‘t()hor1 .. r ’ it
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