Visual Art
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Through the looking glass
MEANING BLEEDS BUT FORM REIGNS IN THE WORKS CHOSEN
Sweat Enquiry (2004) by Gareth James
Alexander Kennedy is blown away by the CCA’s new group show, IN THE POEM ABOUT LOVE YOU DON’T WRITE THE WORD LOVE.
fter too many years of banal post-structuralist
philosophising. of trying to rend the signifier
from the signified. image from meaning. form from content. the imaginary gap between both has opened further. and art enters. Art begins where meaning fails. and gestures from there to the illusion of a beyond. There is no excluding bar between the two. and the expertly curated show by Tanya Leighton In the Poem About Love You Don 't ll’ritr’ the Word Low at Glasgow‘s C(‘A effortlessly demonstrates this with elan.
The glut of work shown includes performance. drawings. installations. films and video pieces that explore perception (looking and thinking). demonstrating that either side of the binary isn‘t as fixed as it may first appear. The 35 exhibitors include artists and filmmakers such as Marcel Broodthaers. Jeremy Deller. Robert Smithson. Sue Tompkins. Gareth James. Godard. Warhol and Pasolini. Meaning bleeds but form reigns in the works chosen. A perfect example of this is the films and objects that deal with text and the spoken word. Sue Tomkin’s drawings (fragmented texts on folded paper such as ‘Untitled. 2005. (ill wait here)‘. (sic) are some of the most successful works she has shown. Her poetry-
performance on the opening night resonated with her
work on the walls. and set an aesthetic agenda that much of the show tackles. You are drawn in and you are pleased. You think. you get bored. then you think about that. John Smith‘s film ‘(iirl (‘hewing (ium'. 1976. also examines the relationship between looking and meaning. about which one comes first. A voice behind the camera appears to be directing the black and white action. but the interpreting voice is added
98 THE LIST 1—153 DOC 2005
later. Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt in ‘Thc Swamp’. l‘)7l. undertake a similar project. where Smithson‘s land art concerns are expanded through performance and lhmm lilm documentation.
(iarcth James‘ work takes tip almost a quarter of the main gallery space. and rightly so. His smooth. Plexiglas and two-way mirror boxes float on roughly hewn wooden trestle tables. using the idea of the seductive gestalt of minimalist sculpture to entice the viewer. The boxes contain replicas of what looks like scenes of devastation. collapsed and bombed-out
buildings (filerusalem. May 200l‘. 2004. for example). each one created out of a single sheet of
folded paper. and mirroring (and deconstructing) the sense of wholeness that the pretty pristine boxes manage to instil. Art is always political but does not have to be overtly so.
The work shown proves that the slippages of
meaning. things not said or that cannot be said at that moment. meanings lost in translation or intentionally confused. are the stuff of great art. And that contradiction is useful when used strategically. According to Derrida. the moment before we invest
meaning into a sign. an art object. is the moment of
madness. the moment where nothing becomes something out of a split second of panic. of being forced to be consistent. to comply. to understand. It is also an artistic and ethical moment. when issues can be raised and limitations expanded without simply dribbling ideology.
In the Poem About Love You Don’t Write the Word Love, CCA, Glasgow, until Sat 28 Jan. .0...
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THE BEST EXHIBITIONS
* In the Poem About Love You Don’t Write the Word Love Tanya Leighton curates a show of 30 or so artists and filmmakers, examining visual pleasure, where what you see isn’t necessarily what you get. The artists play with ideas of truth, representation and power to create work that questions the nature of our increasingly administered and ‘spun’ reality. See review, left. CCA, Glasgow, until Sat 28 Jan.
* Western . . . er? Hugh Pizey of Lapland brings together artists, designers and writers who have been commissioned to mark the 400th anniversary of Cervantes' novel Don Quixote. The Project Rooms contain works on paper. wooden sculptures, ceramics and vinyl records. using the themes, issues and sense of forrnalist play that Cervantes employs to explore madness, fantasy and loneliness. See review, page 99. Project Rooms, Tramway, Glasgow, until Sun 18 Dec.
* New Work and Jackin’ World Keith Farquhar and Mark Leckey present new work exploring relationships between men and material culture — music and fashion. Both artists create installations with sound pieces, a looped refrain of ‘Nice pair of trainers, shoes, jeans and a top' (Farquhar). and music by Leckey’s band, Jack too Jack. Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, until Sun 8 Jan.
* Choice — Monty One Years of Collecting for Scotland To mark the retirement of Sir Timothy Clifford, who leaves his post after 21 years as the director general of the National Galleries of Scotland, he and his curatorial team have selected some of the best works from the 500 plus pieces he has acquired for the country during his directorship. Royal Scottish Academy Building, Edinburgh, until Mon 23 Jan.