Review| 21st Century: Art in the First Decade at GoMA
The 21st Century: Art in the First Decade exhibition fills three levels of the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), South Bank, with all the unexpected installations and materials we have come to love. The product of ten years collecting contemporary art, 21 Centuryfeatures old favourites as well as a few specific commissions. At the entrance visitors will see two silver spiral slippery slides, which you are encouraged to slide down. Carsten Höller’s Left/Right Slide (2010) begins on level three and sends visitors flying to level one. The spirals are perfectly placed, like so much in this exhibition, for the viewer to see it from the best vantage point. In other words, it looks stunning from all angles from below to above as well as inside. From GoMA’s website:
[Carsten Höller] has stated that experience is the ‘material’ that he uses to create works that alter the viewer’s sensory perception, behaviour and sense of order or logic.
From the slide visitors walk right in to the Kunst Hall space of the gallery which divides the two large ground floor spaces. A hive of activity and a loud hum of voices will take you by surprise if they haven’t already as you approach Olafur Eliasson’s The cubic structural evolution project (2004). The artwork is compiled of a seemingly endless supply of white Lego pieces awaiting construction into a crumbling and desolate city. First featured in ‘Made for this World’ (2005 – 2006) his artwork is a favourite among visitors and like many in 21st Century visitors can see it in a new configuration. So many of the artworks felt like old friends as I saw them for the second or third time, and so many felt like instant friends, the kind I’d hope to visit again. These include Tobias Putrih’s Connection (2004) cardboard box arch which recalls the magnificence of industrial buildings using ephemeral materials and Bharti Kher’s The Skin Speaks a Language Not its Own (2006) an elephant sculpture many visitors will remember from previous Asia Pacific Triennials.
From the beginning the tone is set with a diverse array of materials and techniques employed, including video art, textiles, painting, Aboriginal basket weaving, mangled canvas, Elephant dung, plastic bag sculpture and carbon wallpaper (and that is just the first room). The tone is contemporary (I don’t know what else to call it) and it says, “Don’t trust your first impressions”. The materials used by artists in 21st Century betray political, personal and profound meanings and they deliberately want the viewer to think about their work. GoMA have struck a magical balance between depth and sheer fun times with this exhibition as they have in the past. Don’t let the large crowds and wild children fool you – this is a serious exhibition, it just happens to have some of the most enjoyable artworks in it.
Among these more memorable installations (before I describe the crowning glory of the exhibition) include Leandro Erlich’s Swimming Pool (2010) which, just as the title suggests, is a swimming pool. Complete with port hole lights, water, ladder and deck.Swimming Pool fools your eyes for a moment, until, glancing down, you notice people under the water. For a split second you wonder how they can breath, but soon realise they can and do seem to be having a splendid time looking up at you. Later on while exploring the well equipped Children’s Art Centre you can venture into the pool yourself. This experience is one which links to a strong theme in the exhibition: spectatorship and exploring how our experience of our bodies changes in new environments. The GoMA website has the following explanation for Carsten Höller’sLeft/Right Slide (2010) which also applies to Swimming Pool:
The [artworks] can be viewed as sculptures in the Gallery of Modern Art, encompassing the facial expressions of descending sliders. For those that participate in the work, however, there is the added dimension of observing their own inner spectacle as they hurtle through space.
Our inner spectacle is also observed when we stand above and inside the Swimming Pool because we can’t help but wonder what we look like from above and below the surface. Looking and watching is a deceptively simple strategy but one that we can’t escape inside an art gallery. Artists have turned their attention to turning our attention on ourselves for many many years and each medium has achieved this differently. 21st Century has a huge element of audience involvement, more than any exhibition I’ve visited in the past years. The wall text reports that:
…There has been a strong emphasis on exploring new forms of exhibition making and museum display, particularly with regards to the viewer’s sense of being implicated in a work. Artists have experimented with making the viewer more conscious of the way art is experienced and there has been a move away from the emphasis on the artist as an individual and towards collaborative processes.
I suspect that the curatorial team know how valuable and memorable personal experiences with art can be and this brings me to the Children’s Art Centre, something I must mention because it too is exceptional. Not only in the dedicated multi-level art space but also throughout the exhibition children’s activities draw huge crowds of young ones eager to make their own Fiona Hall Tender (2003-06) bank note birds nests or write a wish for Rivane Neuenschwander’s I wish your wish (2003) or become honoury citizens of Tony Alert’s Alien Nation Embassy (2008) or join Romuald Hazoumè making art from found and recycled objects. The list goes on.
And for the little art historians out there Jana Sterak’s The children will show you art(2010):
Recorded inside a purpose-built, faux 19th century gallery space, Jana Sterbak’s artist project features an exhibition of works from the Gallery’s historical collections curated by kids. Young visitors are able to view the exhibition and record a film from their point of view using a pair of high tech glasses with a built-in digital camera. The finished film clips can be sent to friends and family via email to show the young visitors ideas about works on show.
However before I get caught up wishing I was young enough to join the above projects, I’ll explain a little (not too much) about the magical final room of 21st Century. The artist, Celeste Boursier-Mougenot, draws on personal exprience and a wish to relinquish control of the art object in From here to ear, V.13 (2010). The installation fills a large room with five areas of focus and sound generation. The viewer sees a wood floor, white walls, and feels a reverent atmosphere. Coat hangers hang from sound producing wires on the ceiling and when they move or are pulled a low hum can be heard. A science fiction soundtrack was my last thought because the first time I entered the space I did not even note the changing sounds. Guitar-like chords fill the room, yet their origin is unclear. Making the noises and pulling on the wires I saw the cutest, liveliest, bring a tear to your eye with joy-est creatures. I won’t tell you what they are because you really have to experience this one. [Edit: click the link and you’ll see them]
Boursier-Mougenot states: “If you pay attention to the complexity of the world, if you just drive it to the space is can make a very interesting object”.
21st Century: Art in the First Decade - 18 December 2010 to 16 April 2011.
