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C103
Review
Dublin: Chris Cunningham at
5th
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Chris
Cunningham: flex, 2001, video installation
with sound; courtesy of
Anthony d'Offay Ltd, London who commissioned and
produced flex
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Sex and death sells. Apparently,
this is something well-known in the commercial world of
advertising but I am not sure what the logic is behind
it (how could this be logical?). The human fascination
with sex and death is well documented, however, and in
the art world it was especially popular at the turn of
the last century, in the era of the 'femme fatale'. In
his book Femme Fatale: Images of Evil and Fascinating
Women, Patrick Bade puts this obsession down to the
prevalence of syphilis among Bohemian artists, and the
romantic spirit of the Pre-Raphaelite movement.1
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Chris
Cunningham: flex, 2001, video installation
with sound; courtesy of
Anthony d'Offay Ltd, London who commissioned and
produced flex
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In flex at the Guinness
5th
Gallery, Chris Cunningham deals with a variation of this
theme, concentrating on sex and violence. Perhaps it is
my own romanticism surging forth, but while Cunningham's
variation is scarier to me, I believe it wholly relevant
to the turn of the millennium: terrorism, the proliferation
of nuclear weapons, and the ravages of AIDS form the backdrop
to personal terror, as there is a growing awareness of
abuse and the realisation that the 'enemy' is usually
a trusted member of the community and/or family. Although
I tend to be wary of exhibitions that come with a warning
(as this one did), suspecting the artist and/or gallery
of wanting to promote sensationalism, to be suspicious
of flex would be to trivialise one of the most thought-provoking
videos I have ever seen.
Before entering the gallery space,
loud, electronic sound (created in collaboration with
Richard D. James) is already heard. The video itself is
projected onto a complete wall of the square gallery,
so one is within a cinematic environment. There
is a definite narrative too, so it is important to watch
the complete video - which, while it emotionally may prove
difficult, is visually stunning.
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Chris
Cunningham: flex, 2001, video installation
with sound; courtesy of
Anthony d'Offay Ltd, London who commissioned and
produced flex
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In a nutshell: from darkness a
beam of light illuminates the naked forms of a man and
woman who are first seen in the protective spoon embrace;
on separating they are both overwhelmed by violence to
each other, and the video ends with the woman crawling
back to the embrace of the man. The video is filmed in
such a way that the human forms are 'other' in that the
perspective is distorted and details are too defined.
What one hears is a type of hyper-realism (movement, breathing,
the meeting of flesh on flesh) and the familiar Hollywood
notion of a space vacuum - the impossible sound of the
hollow scraping of air... While the video seems to be
black and white (as a viewer I found some irony here as
I thought of Guinness commercials gone terribly, terribly
wrong!), there are subtle hints of colour: the man's ear
and the woman's lips are pink. Both the man and woman
have very fit, muscular bodies and their interaction is
predicated by the white light - at some points they seem
to be interrogated, their actions and violence towards
each other seem to be caused by this light. Here I considered
the effect of the obelisk in 2001: A Space Odyssey,
and with this in mind, it is no surprise that Cunningham
has in fact worked with Stanley Kubrick. In art and literature
'the light' traditionally represents goodness and truth;
in flex, while not necessarily malignant, the beam of
light reveals nakedness and fear (like the apple of knowledge
in the Garden of Eden).
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Chris
Cunningham: flex, 2001, video installation
with sound; courtesy of
Anthony d'Offay Ltd, London who commissioned and
produced flex
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Given time and space, I would
be able to write a tome on Flex. Cunningham is an experienced
maker of videos in the music industry who has brought
his expertise and vision into the art world. Fabulous
production and thoughtful work; no naval-gazing here,
this is video as it should be.
Lorraine Whelan is an artist
and writer based in Bray, Co. Wicklow.
Chris Cunningham: flex,
Guinness 5th Gallery, November 2002 - January 2003
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you have an opinion on this article? If so, please click here for our comments form.
| Responses so far |
| Comment 1 |
hi. writing my dissertation on cunningham. talking a bit
about flex.
C103 Review
Dublin: Chris Cunningham at 5th
your analysis of the light source was most interesting
thanks! :)
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| Comment 2 |
Your Cunningham artcicle was very very useful for my FMP -
thanks alot!!!
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| Comment 3 |
The site is great, but you should really have a link so your
readers can watch Flex online, im sure you would get alot
more hits.
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