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c102: Winter 2002 - Glasgow: Goshka Macuga and Nick Evans at Transmission C102 review
Homeless Furniture is a site-specific installation by the Polish-born artist Goshka Macuga. Specificity is key to Macuga's practice, not only in engaging the space itself but also the wider artistic community, each becoming an integral part of the creative process. For Transmission Gallery, Macuga has selected works by local artists which she has displayed in assorted cabinets and curio-boxes, provoking interesting questions on the making, viewing and ownership of work. These wooden cabinets have an antiquated feel, conjuring up images of dusty museum displays. However, this idea is soon shattered when encountering some of the works on offer. A bubblegum dinosaur, a knitted poster and collaged waterbottles are just a few of the curios selected, all of which embody a raw quality, contrasting nicely with the structures that house them. These cabinets are propped and stacked, resulting in a concentrated composition which diagonally slices the gallery space. Within this framework a dialogue is created, succeeding most where the cabinets and works fuse, either on a physical or interpretive level. The former is manifested through Macuga's seamless propping and positioning of certain pieces, making the distinction between work and construction difficult. This is evident when considering a section of Karla Black's floor piece, which seems disjointed and distant from its previous sprawling form. However, it is the very sectioning of the work, its new size and structure, which makes it possible to be viewed as both a work and a construction, blurring the boundaries in the process. As for fresh interpretations, they are most successfully enabled through Macuga's seemingly casual placement of individual pieces. Integral to this is the use of local artists' works, many of which have been exhibited previously. This invites viewers familiar with the pieces to re-examine their memory and meaning from a new perspective. For example, Neil Bickerton's colourfully stitched sunset cape is casually draped on a wardrobe door, a very different incarnation from its placement on a posed mannequin in his recent installation. However, this almost humorous repositioning is really only successful with prior knowledge, and, as with certain other pieces, the recontextualisation doesn't always work. The overall installation is visually rich, raising questions of ownership and identity, but it fails to fully investigate these issues. A more direct fusion at Macuga's hand might have proved more rewarding. Meanwhile, in the basement space, Glasgow-based artist Nick Evans has created an installation in response to the heroic life and martyrdom of legendary African leader Patrice Lumumba. Rather than try to explain Lumumba's life, Evans takes his history as a starting point for creating his own aesthetic response. Most essential to this is the piece Lumumba is Dead (Long Live Lumumba) , in which three totem-pole structures are displayed, bound and grounded by assorted coloured woollen reams. This seems to eerily echo the fate of Lumumba and two of his comrades, who were imprisoned and executed by the Katanga secessionist regime. However, as with the rest of the installation, the piece succeeds in transforming a historical reference into a unique visual response. Sorcha Dallas is an artist and co-curator of Switchspace gallery based in Glasgow Goshka Macuga: Homeless Furniture , Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, September/October 2002 Nick Evans: Lumumba is dead , Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, September/October 2002 Article reproduced from CIRCA 102, Winter 2002, pp. 82-83.
Comment 1 on 2005-03-31 09:11:14 [568]
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