3/8/2012 0 Comments Undercard, voilent impressionsVIOLENCE MEETS BEAUTY VIA SYDNEY ARTIST MATT GLENN
PICTURE THIS: FROM A BIRD’S EYE VIEW, A CAR TRAVELS ALONG A SUNLIT ROAD, FRINGED WITH COUNTRYSIDE. IN THE CAR, A FAMILY OF THREE IS SMILING, RELAXED, AND ENJOYING THE RIDE. THE MOTHER PUTS ON A CD, AND ALL OF A SUDDEN THE SCENE IS RUPTURED BY LOUD DEATH METAL, WHICH ONLY WE THE VIEWERS CAN HEAR. THE GUTTURAL SOUNDTRACK FORESHADOWS THE DESTINY OF THE FAMILY, WHICH IS TO BE KEPT HOSTAGE AND TORTURED TO DEATH BY TWO BORED TEENS. OBLIVIOUS, THE FAMILY’S STILL SMILING. THIS IS THE OPENING SCENE OF MICHAEL HANEKE’S ‘FUNNY GAMES’, AN AUSTRIAN THRILLER THAT I THINK IS BRILLIANT. IT’S BRILLIANT BECAUSE IT’S SO GORY AND YET SO SUBTLE, A COMBINATION THAT MAKES THE FILM DISTURBINGLY EERIE WELL BEYOND THE END CREDITS. BUT MY ADMIRATION OF THIS SADISTIC DISPLAY – IN ONE SCENE, THE CAMERA LINGERS FOR MINUTES ON A WALL COATED IN A YOUNG BOY’S REMAINS AFTER BEING SHOT POINT BLANK BY A RIFLE – STRIKES ME AS STRANGE. HOW COULD SOMETHING SO MACABRE BE SO INTRIGUING TO HUMAN BEINGS? PSYCHOLOGISTS REFER TO THIS AS THE VIOLENCE-PARADOX. IT’S A DEEPLY CURIOUS AREA OF THE HUMAN PSYCHE THAT REMAINS A MYSTERY AND IS EXPLORED BY MATT GLENN IS HIS RECENT EXHIBITION, ‘UNDERCARD’. GLENN’S FASCINATED WITH THE UNUSUAL FUSION OF VIOLENCE AND GRACE; HOW SOMETHING SO DESTRUCTIVE CAN APPEAL TO OUR AESTHETIC SENSE AS AN OBJECT OF BEAUTY. ON WHITE WALLS HUNG A SERIES OF WORKS, MOST OF WHICH AT FIRST GLANCE LOOKED LIKE MIRRORS. WALKING UP TO MY REFLECTION, HOWEVER, I NOTICED THAT IT WAS MARRED WITH BULLET HOLES. GLENN TOLD ME THAT THE WORKS HAVE ALL BEEN SHOT AT SHOOTING RANGES BY RANGE OFFICERS OR EX COPS. AS A RESULT, THE STAINLESS STEEL PANELS ARE LEFT JAGGEDLY PERFORATED. ANOTHER STAINLESS STEEL PANEL STRETCHING 2.4 METRES ACROSS THE WALL REFLECTED A BUZZING ROOM OF VIEWERS. THE LAUGHING, BULLET-HOLED REFLECTIONS REMINDED ME OF HANEKE’S SMILING FAMILY AND THE SINISTER MUSICAL OVERLAY. THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE LIVELINESS OF THE SPACE AND THE INHERENT VIOLENCE OF THE WORKS HIT CLEVERLY ON THE DICHOTOMIES OF HAPPINESS AND SUFFERING, LIFE AND DEATH. THE POINT OF THE WORKS IS TO DISTIL THE DESTRUCTIVE SO AS TO MAKE IT AN OBJECT OF CONTEMPLATION. SUDDENLY SOMETHING MENACING BECOMES AN OBJECT OF CURIOSITY, NOT FEAR. IT IS A RARE CHANCE TO FIND SOMETHING OF BEAUTY AMONG THE CHAOS. SEEING MY BULLET-MARRED REFLECTION IN THE WORKS WAS LIKE OBSERVING MYSELF POSTHUMOUSLY, ENTERTAINING THE POTENTIALITY OF MY OWN DEATH. BUT BECAUSE THE MACABRE REFLECTIONS ARE WORKS OF ART, GLORIFIED IN BLACK FRAMES, THEY’RE DISCONNECTED FROM THE VIEWER. THE ARTIST LIKENS THIS SEPARATION TO THE ‘DISTANCING DEVICES’ OF CINEMA AND PHOTOGRAPHY; BOTH MAKE THE UNAPPROACHABLE APPROACHABLE. (SEE GLENN’S ‘GREEN SCREEN FOR AN ACTION FILM’, A LIME-GREEN LACQUERED PANEL DESTROYED BY SHRAPNEL.) WATCHING A HORROR FLICK, FOR EXAMPLE, TRANSPORTS US TO THE HEADSPACE OF A VICTIM BEING CHASED BY A CRAZY PERSON ARMED WITH A CARVING KNIFE. UNACCUSTOMED TO EXTREME VIOLENCE, THIS IS OUR CHANCE TO GET IN ON THE ACTION VIA THE BIG SCREEN, LIKE A SEX-DEPRIVED VOYEUR PEERING THROUGH A STRANGER’S WINDOW. BUT DESPITE BEING ABLE TO SUSPEND OUR DISBELIEF AND VICARIOUSLY PARTAKE IN CINEMATIC VIOLENCE, THE MOVIE SCREEN WILL ALWAYS ACT AS A BARRIER, ALBEIT TRANSPARENT. THIS BARRIER BOTH EXCLUDES AND PROTECTS US – IT IS OUR SHIELD FROM THE HORROR. THE SITUATION IS CONTROLLED, NO ONE IS HARMED, AND WE ARE REMINDED OF OUR SAFETY THE MOMENT THE END CREDITS START ROLLING. PERHAPS THIS SOMEWHAT UNRAVELS THE VIOLENCE-PARADOX AS IT HINTS AT THE IDEA OF US TAKING PLEASURE IN DANGER BUT ONLY IN A CONTEXT THAT WE CAN CONTROL. THIS NOTION REMINDS ME OF PHILOSOPHER IMMANUEL KANT’S ACCOUNT OF THE ‘DYNAMICAL SUBLIME’. IN SIMPLE TERMS, KANT BELIEVES THAT WE TAKE PLEASURE IN BEING CONFRONTED BY SOMETHING INFINITELY GREAT IN POWER – LIKE A TURBULENT SEA OR THUNDEROUS SKY – SO LONG AS IT’S NOT A DIRECT THREAT. WE RESPOND VISCERALLY TO THE IDEA OF A PHYSICAL THREAT UPON OUR EXISTENCE, WHILE AT THE SAME TIME RECOGNISING OUR REAL SAFETY FROM IT. IMAGINE PEERING OFF A CLIFF’S EDGE DOWN INTO A PLUNGING VALLEY, AND PONDERING FALLING, BUT STAYING PUT. KANT SUMMARIZES THIS SUBLIME STATE OF MIND AS ‘A RAPIDLY ALTERNATING REPULSION AND ATTRACTION’ TO SOMETHING. SOUND FAMILIAR? IT HITS ON THE APPROACH-AVOIDANCE TRANCE WE FIND OURSELVES IN WHEN FACED BY A CAR ACCIDENT; GRAPHIC NEWS FOOTAGE; OR THOSE LATE-NIGHT DODGY DRAMATIC REMAKE SHOWS ABOUT SERIAL KILLERS. WE ARE SEDUCED BY THE VIOLENCE, BOTH HORRIFIED AND ENTHRALLED. WE’RE ENTHRALLED ALSO DUE TO THE BODY’S CHEMICAL RESPONSE TO DANGER. THE RELEASE OF DOPAMINE, ADRENALINE AND CORTISOL MAKES US FEEL MORE POWERFUL, MORE POSITIVE AND MORE CONFIDENT. AND IT’S EASY TO GET HOOKED ON THIS SENSATIONAL HIGH. DRIVEN BY A NEED FOR HEIGHTENED PHYSIOLOGICAL SENSATION, WE SEEK OUT STIMULUS THAT WILL INCITE IT, LIKE TELEVISED CONTACT SPORTS, GRAPHIC VIDEO GAMES, AND VIOLENT FILMS. THESE EVENTS ARE PART OF A VERY LONG HISTORY IN WHICH TORTURE AND PUBLIC EXECUTIONS ARE PART OF POPULAR ENTERTAINMENT. FOR AS ABHORRENT AS THE BLOODBATHS IN THE COLOSSEUM, THE INQUISITIONS, AND WAR MAY BE, THEY ARE UNSHAKABLY HUMAN, WHETHER WE LIKE TO ADMIT IT OR NOT. IT’S BIOLOGICALLY INGRAINED IN US. WE ALL HAVE IN US A VIOLENT REFLEX TO CONFLICT, CONFUSION OR FEAR. AND YET IT’S NO LONGER FUNCTIONAL IN MODERN LIFE AS IT WAS FOR OUR ANCESTORS WHO WERE STAVING OFF SABERTOOTH TIGERS IN LOINCLOTHS. NOW WE NEED ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO DEAL WITH OUR VIOLENT IMPULSES, LIKE WATCHING ‘HOSTEL’, OR SOME GUY POUNDING IN THE CARTILAGE OF HIS OPPONENT’S FACE ON ESPN. PLUS THERE’S AN AESTHETIC APPEAL TO THE DRAMA, AS GLENN SUGGESTS IN HIS WORK ‘DREAM BOUT’, A FLUORESCENT SIGN WITH ‘ALI VS TYSON’ IN BLACK AND RED LETTERING. ILLUMINATED ON GLITTERING BILLBOARDS, WE GLORIFY VIOLENCE. BUT I’M STILL NOT CONVINCED AS TO WHY WE ARE INFATUATED WITH VIOLENCE. ADRENALINE RUSH ASIDE, DANGER ALSO TRIGGERS ANXIETY, PALPITATIONS, HEADACHE AND HYPERTENSION. AND EVEN IF WE TELL OURSELVES IT ISN’T REAL, THIS DOESN’T PREVENT US FROM RESPONDING IN THE SAME PHYSIOLOGICAL WAY TO ACTUAL HORROR. SO WHAT COMPELS US TO EXCITEDLY QUEUE UP TO WATCH THE LATEST HORROR FLICK? WHY DO WE DETECT SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL IN ARTWORKS THAT ARE INHERENTLY VIOLENT? MAYBE IT’S A MODE OF SELF-PRESERVATION, AS PSYCHOLOGIST JEFFREY KOTTLER SUGGESTS? IN HIS BOOK, ‘THE LUST FOR BLOOD: WHY WE ARE FASCINATED BY DEATH, MURDER, HORROR AND VIOLENCE’, KOTTLER EXPLAINS: ‘THERE’S ACTUALLY HIGHLY FUNCTIONAL ASPECTS TO OUR BEHAVIOUR THAT MAKE US FASCINATED TO FIND OUT HOW PEOPLE DIE, WHAT HAPPENS, SO WE CAN PROTECT OURSELVES FROM A SIMILAR FATE.’ WHEN WE FIND OURSELVES INESCAPABLY STARING AT A CAR CRASH, WE’RE COMMITTING TO MEMORY WHAT SHOULD BE AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS. IF WE ANALYSE VIOLENCE, WE SEEM TO THINK THAT WE HAVE CONTROL OVER IT. BUT REALLY WE DON’T. NEARLY EVERYTHING EXPERIENCED IN LIFE IS BEYOND ONE’S CONTROL, AND NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU STEER AWAY FROM DEATH, YOU CANNOT AVOID YOUR OWN MORTALITY. I THINK THIS HITS ON THE CRUX OF THE PARADOX. WE ARE FASCINATED BY VIOLENCE BECAUSE IT REMINDS US OF OUR MORTALITY, AND CONSEQUENTLY, OF LIFE. CURIOUS, WE LOOK OUT FROM THE CLIFF’S EDGE, DOWN INTO A VALLEY THAT LIFE COULD SO EASILY PLUNGE INTO. VIOLENCE IS AN EXHILARATING REMINDER OF THE FRAGILITY AND BEAUTY OF LIFE. GLENN’S ARTWORKS REMIND US OF THIS. THEY’RE STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL, SIMPLE, LAYERED AND MENACING, REFLECTING HIS FASCINATION IN THE CROSSOVER OF VIOLENCE/DISRUPTION AND BEAUTY/ROMANCE. HE WRITES: ‘THE POINTS OF THIS INTERSECTION EVOKE A RANGE OF DIFFERENT RESPONSES FOR ME; INTRIGUE, EMPATHY, NOSTALGIA, CURIOSITY AND INTROSPECTION.’ THE EXHIBITION PROMPTS A DIALOGUE WITH ALL THESE THINGS, AND IN TURN, INCITES IN US A HEIGHTENED AWARENESS OF LIFE. AWAKENED, WE GAZE CONSCIOUSLY INTO THE ARTWORKS AND CAN HEAR THE FAINT SOUND OF DEATH METAL. HARRIET LEVENSTON 2012 ‘UNDERCARD’ IS ON DISPLAY UNTIL 25 MARCH AT THE JAMES DORAHY PROJECT SPACE, SUITE 4, LEVEL 1, MINERVA BUILDING, 111 MACLEAY ST, POTTS POINT, NSW.
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I passionately unenrolled from COFA (College of Fine/Faux Arts) a few years ago. Frustrated with the lack of technical training and the ‘art is anything and everything’ attitude, I sailed to the promising shores of the Julian Ashton Art School. Swapping the glossy studios of COFA for the creaky floors of Ashton’s was the best decision I made as an artist.
When I was asked to review the COFA Annual, I was both excited and sceptical. Who better – or worse – to review the show, I thought, than myself? Without wanting to be jaded from the start, I saw the request as an opportunity to have my low views of COFA disproven. Pushing through the humidity of a curious crowd last Friday night as I descended the spiral of the Roundhouse, adorned with streamers, miniature houses, balloons, spot lights and giant car air fresheners, it was immediately apparent that the COFA Annual was very big, very diverse and very hit and miss. 2011 saw a flock of over three hundred and fifty students graduate COFA, and their displayed works reflected the evolved product of their artistic progression. The massive exhibition showcased an array of photography, drawing, painting, digital media, sculpture, jewellery, installation, textiles, printmaking, video works, environments and illustration. The immensity of the show guaranteed that whether you love or hate the idea of a graffiti house dripping with fluorescent puff-paint, woolly embroidered body parts, or a metallic mannequin with matching silver goon bag, there would be at least something that’d engage you. The design works were, on the whole, well designed and conceptually very strong. Despite the show’s diversity, there were noticeable themes drawing from different disciplines. Textiles was one of them, environmental sustainability the other. For textile designer Diya Dasgupta, whose energetic and colourful prints incorporated sailing boats, emu heads and intricate organic patterns, these two themes are symbiotic: 'A lot of designers look to nature for inspiration', said Dasgupta. Having grown up in India, nature for Dasgupta also relates to her cultural environment, as seen in her Ikat weave-inspired prints and use of vibrant quintessentially Indian reds, ochres and purples. Similarly, artist, illustrator and designer, Victoria Garcia’s Surrocodelia offered an intensely detailed and effervescent depiction of flora and fauna. Lining the walls of a lit room, were watercolour and ink drawings of snakes, deer, birds, huntsmen spiders, insects, armadillos, mushrooms and lush vegetation. Standing in the space, the effect was simultaneously intriguing and overwhelming. Each blade of grass, feather’s spine, follicle of fur and reptilian scale is drawn with such precision and delicacy that the eye is propelled into overdrive. This overstimulated effect is exactly the intention of Garcia, who amalgamates her favourite art styles – Surrealism, Rococo and Psychedelia – into an intensely mesmerising ‘wunderkammer’ or ‘cabinet of curiosity’. One stunned viewer summed up the experience in a single utterance – acid. Equally exciting were the products of designers who tackled environmental problems in innovative and aesthetic ways. From planters that collect and drink air-conditioning condensation to re-upholstered and re-designed used furniture by ‘Nine Lives’, the environment seems to be in reassuring hands with this new generation of up and coming designers. One such designer, Rachel Wong, collaborated with Natalie Lysaught to develop an educational course for high-school design and technology students, which ‘inspires students to realise the potential of recycled goods and furniture.’ Yet, traditional Fine Art viewers beware! The Fine Arts component of the show was at times disheartening, or for parents, possibly nostalgic – like walking through their child’s kindergarten. I wasn’t sure when, but at some point during the show my feeling of being underwhelmed crept into unshakeable irritation. Cliché subject matter made me reminisce high-school days, and some portraits lacked serious anatomical understanding. Abstract works made me wonder whether the artist’s decision against realism was a conscious or necessary one, based on skill level. However, there was an undeniable altruistic focus to many artists’ and designers’ works, which was genuinely refreshing and evocative. Janani Sarath-Kumara’s stunning prints, which feature 2D patterns metamorphosing into a 3D manifestation of the design, explore the shift from the visual to the tactile, reflecting the process of going blind. Clothing items made from her textiles support people with cataracts. Similarly, Alice Lam’s The Design. Nature. Aspiration Project aimed to promote lung health, increase awareness and foster financial support for medical research through a range of exhibition based, charity jewellery for the Australian Lung Foundation. Lam’s lung-cells inspired brass-casted necklace was unusually exquisite. Other works were exquisite in different ways. The beautiful yet harrowing photographic works of various photographers bought the viewer into an eerie moment removed from the cacophony of the general exhibition. Depicted in Luke Stambouliah’s Betwixt was the blown-up silhouette of an elderly woman’s profile, her tiny hairs illuminated by a back-lit halo of cool, electric light. Despite omitting all detail save the subject’s outline, the portrait was surprisingly characteristic and intimate. Rachel Wallace-Hor’s photographs of the human body emerging from darkness were reminiscent of Bill Hensen’s unsettling blue-tinted nudes, rendered all the more dramatic by the effective use of chiaroscuro typical in a Caravaggio composition. Wallace-Hor’s images were subtly chilling and visceral, appropriately expressing the artist’s intent of exploring the physiological effects of repression and unconsciousness upon the human psyche. Ultimately, against the subtly and technical finesse of some works, by many talented artists who have not here been mentioned, certain works were jarring and underdeveloped. No matter how clever or powerful the concept, without highly trained technical skill, the artwork will collapse. After all, art is visual – if a person wants to express a message without this consideration, they should write an essay, not paint a picture. Previous experience at COFA has indicated to me first-hand that here technique is secondary to ideas, a philosophy that is deeply detrimental to the overall aesthetic quality of the works. Although at times underwhelming, the exhibition redeems possible feelings of dissatisfaction by works that are strongly developed and produced with great care and aptitude. Visually digesting all the works in one go was exhausting, but worth it. Some works were good, some amazing, and most neither. Harriet Levenston 2012 |