Glasgow: Goshka
Macuga and Nick Evans at Transmission
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Goshka
Macuga: Homeless Furniture, installation
shot;
courtesy Transmission Gallery
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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
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