Modern Panic

Only this year am I experiencing showing the same work again and in different places and contexts. Up until now I think I've only shown any piece of work one time. It's so interesting and fruitful to see the same work in different spaces and in front of different audiences. Last night was the opening of Modern Panic at The Old Abattoir, Clerkenwell, London, where my piece Seep is showing.

www.guerrillazoo.com/modern-panic

I have mobile phone photos of the set up, but actually forgot to take any of the Private View last night. The space is fantastic, really atmospheric, and truly an old abattoir which seems to be haunted by the ghosts of animals. Although in places well lit, there are areas and tunnels which lead to darkness, and still alarming fixtures which can only mean one thing.

I was given a great alcove for my installation, which is a TV showing Seep on loop. The TV is painted with blackboard paint, and so looks dark and matt. I was going to write the title on it, but found a suitable piece of board on site which I used to write on the piece of writing accompanying it.

Seep

     Time erases the boundaries of our selves, our bodies, and there is a letting of the person, a haemorrhaging, as we absorb the flow of tidal, cyclical, everyday experiences.

     Time seeps into our lives, as we seep into the overlaying membranes of our selves.

In all, I was really pleased with the quiet set up, it looks intriguing, and reveals itself more and more as the viewer approaches. However, at the PV, which was quite crowded, it suffered the scourge of moving image pieces - it was switched off when I arrived! A performance stage had been set up almost immediately in front of my space, and so the whole point was lost. I was able to turn it on, but there were still people writhing in front of it, and lights strobing etc, and so not really accessible.

The entire exhibition turns out to be what you might call a very specific genre. Freaky, sexual, bondage, underground, out there, are words which may describe. There is certainly some interesting and well done work there - imaginative figurative sculptures, use of animal material, body art, and so on.

http://www.guerrillazoo.com/assets/Uploads/modern-panic/cliff-wallace-creature-effects.png.pagespeed.ce.pPCMkRtHlW.png (accessed 4th June 2011)

http://www.guerrillazoo.com/assets/Uploads/modern-panic/george-triggs-tree-man.png.pagespeed.ce.zR1HdoA1Fu.png (accessed 4th June 2011)

http://www.guerrillazoo.com/assets/Uploads/modern-panic/charlie-tuesday-gates-photo-by-nathan-whitham.png.pagespeed.ce.xPfALzLdnq.png (accessed 4th June 2011)

http://www.guerrillazoo.com/assets/Uploads/modern-panic/lefki-derizioti.png.pagespeed.ce.Nw6nc52sXm.png (accessed 4th June 2011)

http://www.guerrillazoo.com/assets/Uploads/modern-panic/simona-umaraite.png.pagespeed.ce.SoGwrTi2JN.png (accessed 4th June 2011)



I can see why they chose my piece Seep to sit within there, although the overall effect of such work, two floors and about 50 artists, definitely weakened and diluted this desire to shock. In those terms, I felt it was pretty lame. Many people in the PV obviously adopt such things as a lifestyle, but must have seen much more intense material in clubs, etc. I personally have seen much more alarming and provocative work in Fine Art and other settings. It's not enough to have slightly subversive subject matter, even if it is having sex with a pig, if the photograph is nothing special and in no way subverts the medium.

However, I am not unhappy to show work on the fringes of genre art. The show itself was well organised, and my piece will be playing on loop in a great venue in London for a couple of weeks for all to see.

 Seep still

vimeo eleanormacfarlane seep

My partner Jon said something brilliant last night, which I will from now on adopt at exhibitions and openings. Confronted by an appliqued alternative version of the periodic table (no picture) he said, "I love all the contradictions in that."

What a useful phrase to say about art. You really can't go wrong in any art situation armed with that. It implies knowledge and insight, yet is completely non committal.


I have previously shown Seep at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, at a screening  session in their small cinema, with questions and answers after held by the curator. That was certainly slightly scary, but mostly because I am unused to this. It's the sort of stress which works and which I would like to have more opportunity to practice. I remember being a little thrown when I was asked why I used digital video and not film, since the work is alot about light and filmic concerns. Only later I thought it through and realised that I am quite committed to exploring and conquering digital media, and making it behave like film as much as I can. At the time I mumbled something about using what I had available, which is actually also true.

I have also shown Seep for discussion in my artists group. Apart from that, it has never yet been shown as I really intend it, playing on loop either in its TV installation or on projection, in the context of a Fine Art gallery. Mostly I have not shown much of my work in this intended setting. While fascinating and useful to see alternatives, setting and context is the final follow through, given the chance.

4th June 2011