Some points of inspiration for me this past month:
Disruptive Abundance, a talk at CSM by Josephine Green in discussion with Jeremy Till and Ezio Manzini.
http://events.arts.ac.uk/apex/EventFormPage?id=a0RD000000AiuLcMAJ&book=true
Josephine Green identifying that we are in the midst of a change in world views - 1) from the hierarchical Scientific, Rational & Industrial to what could be a creative, collaborative decentralised heterachy that is more befitting to the unique qualities of being human. 2) from the meta world view of scarcity to one of abundance, when production has finally outstripped consumption. She feels that we are at a point of conflict as we try to practice a new world view from within the rules of the past.
These ideas have been resonating with me since, examples appearing everywhere.
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'Huyghe works across media to create situations, cutting through time and boundaries, highlighting concepts of separation.'
The exhibition includes a large stone sculpture of a figure sat on rocks, damaged, headless it grows moss and is presented on its back under a low slung halogen strip light; A number of glass tanks holding dark murky water, strange fish and weeds all displayed on plinths with the water level at eye level; and video 'the human mask' which follows a small girl, who is actually a monkey with a mask and wig on, waiting in, and exploring an ornate oriental house/shop on a derelict street.
On first encounter the works are compelling, each suspended in a kind of stasis, not progressing but being. Each works has a strong physical presence in the room, due to size or materials, but most importantly they seem to be existing there, almost without us. Each work feels that it is tackling the question of being and living, purposefully blurring the lines between being and art. After reading the context or sitting with the work for longer these lines are blurred further - the sculpture has an internal heating system making it the temperature of the human body, the water tanks are from Monet's waterlilly pond, the video takes inspiration from a cafe in Japan where a monkey has been trained to be a waitress, wearing the mask and wig, as well as the footage which was taken from Fukushima.
The stasis and seeming blindness of the art objects allows for a slow dreamlike quality in the gallery enabling us to explore these articles that exist on the edges of art and life.
I find this inspiring as it is the gallery equivalent of an intervention - instead of siting art within life, here life is situated within the artwork. In this exhibition we can almost live through the works for a brief moment, as apposed to the works living through us momentarily.
