Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Stupid people shouldn't breed
So Holzer is back at the MCA! There is a small exhibition of 4 artists and Holzer is one of them. Now I personally LOVE her work and am so thrilled that she has a presence in the institution once again. The striking thing though is that after her work was so dramatically presented in darkened galleries last year in her solo exhibition I was struck today when I saw two of her LED pieces in starkly lit rooms. This made me think about our reliance on predicable built environments which I know Gillick and Deller are exploring in very different yet intentional ways.* But this moment of first encountering Holzer after last seeing her work for months in the dim galleries of yesteryear the concept of environmental impact was stronger than ever. The LED lights scrolling her startling and ever-interesting truisms felt less magical and more real. There was less beauty in the honesty and/or boldness of her truisms- and instead of feeling of "well shit, she's kinda right about that one too". I am still in complete awe of her work after seeing her Protect, protect exhibition last year but why am I so distressed without the dark environment that felt like it offered me a safe zone, a cradle, holding me while I explored her work...I thought I was stronger than this.
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or she was stronger. :)
ReplyDeleteooh...nice counter, rachel.
ReplyDeletei had a whole string of thoughts about this post, and then I opened up the comments and lost all of them when I read Rachel's comment. :)
i think work changes when the context changes. As much as some may argue that strong work can always stand on its own, i think that where, how, when, and in what mood we encounter something will always color our perception and engagement of the piece. Maybe it was just the day, Elena. Or maybe next time you could ask the guards to switch off the lights for a second.
The environment a museum creates to display the art works, I feel, is often a "safe zone", where it is easy to get lost in the world of the art and the museum, and then I step outside and I feel a disconnect between the art and the "real world." It's a great challenge to make the works seem relevant to current events one which could help in making the art world appear less exclusive.
ReplyDeletewhat do you think of her public work that appears on buildings? that's an even bigger change of environment. i too loved the magical aura of the darkened rooms in the show last year but maybe that too far removes her work from any sense of reality? while form became an overriding feature in that show, i think her work has more to connect to and with when we allow some of the outside world into it.
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