the single most profound visit i have ever had to an art exhibition was at the serpentine in 1999, a stunning series of photography and video installations by doug aitken. well his first solo exhibition in london since then is currently at the victoria miro gallery called 'i don't exist'. it finishes on saturday so if you are in london get down there fast...
there are three separate pieces of work. one is a fragmented sculpture out of photography - this didn't do much for me. another is a series of lightboxes of cityscapes entirely made from the brands apple, coca cola, fed ex and ibm. but the real action as far as i was concerned was upstairs with the video installation 'interiors'. this was simply wonderful (though it's so hard to convey these kind of things in words).
you can see from the pictures that there was a cruciform arrangement of screens so that you were watching three screens at any one time. we were given a window into four people from different contexts in the globe (tokyo, a factory, a western city, a ghetto). each life ran is own course but seemed curiously interwoven at moments. the flow of the stories encompassed the intensity of work, leaving work, and different experiences of solitude - one walking into the countryside, one by water and so on. at this moment the music was very ambient and all the people closed their eyes as though pausing or in prayer or taking a moment to be still. one of the characters filmed was andré benjamin from outkast who raps as part of the soundtrack. the four stories moved round the different screens so at any one time you could watch three of the stories.
the similarities with alt worship are amazing (i say that but i really should be getting used to the idea of the parallels between contemporary art installations and alt worship) - the visually determined space, the movement from urban images to stillness, a contemplative space, art is enough - i.e. you don't need to explain it, the soundtrack and so on... i was really jealous of the set up!!! oh to have a space like that to work with - the screens were a kind of gauze stretched on large metal frames. and then there was simple furniture in a circle in the middle. i'll probably add some of my pics at some point but having said that there are some photos that are way better than mine here. they give you a really good feel for the way the screens and space is laid out...
Comments