Visual Art
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‘THERE IS AN UNABASHED
PLAYFULNESS IN THE WORK'
lsla Lever-Yap visits Allen Ruppersberg’s ambitious and at times sprawling installation in Dundee, where the private howls of a hipster fill a public forum.
he words and the sense of the writing is
obscene.’ declared (‘hester Macl’hee. who. in
1957. confiscated freshly printed copies of Allen (iinsberg‘s controversial poem 'Howl'. Macl’hce was the (‘ollector of Customs of the West (‘oast Bay Area at the time. His seizure of the poem. which spurred on the notorious obscenity trial over Howl's publication. characterised McPhee as a latter- day (‘anute trying to light back the growing tide of emerging liberal ‘n' literate hipsters already swelling into the ranks of the Beat Generation. headed tip by none other than Ginsberg himself.
Of course. McPhee failed and ‘Howl‘ has become one of the most popular American poems in history. But the entrance to American conceptualist Allen Ruppersberg‘s latest. not to mention largest. UK retrospective brandishes a similarly cautionary rubric as Macl’hee‘s 49—year-old forewarning. albeit in moderated form. It politely warns those looking to avoid references to drug taking. copulation and profanity reproduced in the artist‘s own tribute to the seminal poem. The mischievousness of Ruppersberg's revisitation. however. is that those looking for such vulgarity will have to read it aloud for themselves. since the artist has modified the controversial text into phonetic spellings. almost impossible to decipher without oral accompaniment. The first poster reads: ‘Y SAW thtih / BEST MYNI)7. / uhv my je-nuh-R.~\Y-shin / di-STROYD BY MAD-nis'. Words and sense become obscene indeed. and Ruppersberg blows all three parts of the poem up to epic proportions across the walls of the DCA. Entitled
94 THE LIST 27 Apr—l 1 May 2006
‘The Singing Posters: Parts I. II and “1'. the hundreds of fly bills smack of all that West (‘oast psychedelic vibrancy: their flush of lurid neons offensively brash and dazzling. while the artist‘s verbal acrobatics capture (iinsberg’s own spitting exclamations.
This is also. in part. a memento mori to (iinsberg. as well as Martin Kippenberger. William Burroughs and Willem de Kooning. who all died in 1997. These two works and. really. the rest of the exhibition seem unavoidably entangled in cycles of remembrance. Likewise. his humorous Jackie-style photo-story
‘Where is All" shamelessly reminisces over details of
his younger self. But. like personal memories. all the factual details are rehashed in an idiosyncratic manner. where priority is not governed by historical precedent. but rather by emotional involvement. There is an unabashed playfulness in Ruppersberg‘s work: everything is big. bright. or simply obsessive. Photographs are blown up. miniature Vermeers are
reproduced on a corpulent scale. Tllt’ l’ii'lun' of
Dorian (fray is rewritten word-for-word in an alcove. In the reconstruction of his shambolic office. and embedded within the pages of the book installation 'The New Five Foot Shell”. are the words 'Honey. I rearranged the collection so that it represents my secret life. I'll be back in 2 weeks.' Ruppersberg‘s endless configurations. ordering and reordering with nerdish verve. seem representative of the artist's own personality. but also render him an eltisive figure.
Allen Ruppersberg, One of Many - Origins & Variants, DCA, until Sun 28 May 0000
THE BEST EXHIBITIONS
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1'23 Allen Ruppersberg A new exhibition by the American artist. creator of acid coloured fly- poster shrines to the beat poet Allen Ginsberg and paper monuments to Burroughs and de Kooning. The artist‘s explosive Technicolor vision plunders archive and scrap book. gleefully leaping over the dreary chasm between conceptual art and installation practices. This IS the first large exhibition of Ruppersberg's work in Britain. Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, until Sun 28 May. See review, left.
*1 Karla Black The Glasgow- based artist exhibits her latest sculptural installation in Mary Mary‘s new commercial space. Black's new anti-monumental sculptures simultaneously repel and attract the viewer: flat abstraction forces you away but a subtle use of colour will pull you back in. Mary Mary, Glasgow, until Mon 7 May. See review, page 95.
>11 April is the Cruellest Month An exhibition of new paintings and sculpture by Will Daniels and Fiona Jardine. respectively. This understated show reinterprets appropriation methods. bringing together high art source material with religious architecture. Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, until Sat 13 May. See review, page 95.
“1' Fred Sandback A survey of the late American artist's exploration of high Minimalist and site-specific practices from the 605 to 2003. This critically acclaimed retrospective includes works on paper, metal constructions and compositions in elastic and yarn that become bold drawings in space for the viewer to walk around and through. Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 14 May.
* William Kentridge Powerful charcoal drawings by this white South African artist who depicts a culture that remains peculiarly damaged by the legacy of Apartheid. Some of Kentridge's drawings are made into elegiac animations. Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, until Sat 20 May.