I had an absolutely delightful weekend. For some reason, I awoke in such a happy mood on Saturday, drank my coffee at a leisurely pace and then went out. This is particularly exciting because I am usually so tired after a week of work that on Saturday I have a hard time motivating myself to do anything. Not so this weekend! I had read a review of a particular art exhibit and I was determined to see it. I'd never been to the Old Street area of town and was so happily surprised to find a chic, bohemian, artsy-fartsy area, ripe for exploring. So, I found Hoxton Square and the White Cube gallery and, in my arty way, sat and pondered the exhibit. It was very urbane and pretentious and I loved it. Candice Breitz' current exhibit, Mother + Father consists of two rooms and twelve televisions. In one room, six tvs were arranged in a semicircle, each portraying some famous film actress in a semi-seminal mother role. Breitz had pulled the characters out of their film context and by cutting and splicing their dialogue, made them sort of speak to one another on the topic of motherhood. Julia Roberts cried, Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford freaked out, Shirley Maclaine sang like a crazy person. Same in the second room but this time with fathers played by the likes of Dustin Hoffman, Donald Sutherland and Tony Danza. White Cube's website, in characteristic gallery speak has this to say:
Pirate, composer and DJ, Candice Breitz uses darkly humorous, often subversive tactics to strike out at stereotypes and visual conventions in popular culture. Breitz's acclaimed two-part video installation Mother + Father will be shown downstairs at White Cube. In mirror sequences comprising six channels each, Breitz has edited iconic silver-screen mothers and fathers into shrill fugues of parental breakdown. In one, Faye Dunaway, Diane Keaton, Shirley MacLaine, Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon and Meryl Streep protest and proclaim their respective maternal roles; in the second, Dustin Hoffman, Tony Danza, Harvey Keitel, Steve Martin, Donald Sutherland and Jon Voigt perform an entire spectrum of paternal frustrations. Digitally extracted from their original movie contexts, the cast members of Mother + Father are enlisted to perform new dramas of Breitz's making. The actors emerge from the artist's mixing-desk coerced into taut, abrasive compositions.
After that fun, I headed to the upstairs gallery where I found a wall of thirty TVs, each with a different Italian person singing along to Madonna's greatest hits. These people had such an unbridled love for her that the audience couldn't help but feel happy watching these fools sing, tone-deafly, at people in a different country. The best part was when half of them would attempt the back-up vocals, "liv.ing. in. a. mat.er.ial. world.--Materiaaaauuh hull"
4 comments:
man, who knew about your migraines??
Now I want to go to a gallery! I am going to the V and A Theatre Museum today by Covent Garden before I go to another temp agency (I quit my job).
I saw an exhibit very similar to that at the the Milwaukee Art Museum (who knew?). It was on one television screen and consisted of a shitload of CNN newscasts. They were all spliced into separate words and edited together into a dialogue regarding how the news shapes our perceptions of the world. It was like the CNN newscasters were insulting us and also themselves. Very interesting. Glad to hear you are having fun! ~TS
so jealous. that sounds totally sweet.
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