Summer 2005 - Dublin: Royal Art Lodge at Douglas Hyde Gallery
CIRCA 112 review  | | The Royal Art Lodge: Madam, come with me, we are murdering your husband , 2005, mixed media on panel, 15.24 x 15.24 cm; courtesy Douglas Hyde Gallery | I must admit to being a fan of the Royal Art Lodge and was duly excited by the prospect of Serpentine Musings at the Douglas Hyde Gallery. However, my enthusiasm has been somewhat countered by the speed at which their idiosyncratic and marginal practice appears to have conformed to art-market orthodoxy. On first seeing their compelling show Ask the Dust at the Drawing Center, New York (Jan-March, 2003) I, and half of the artworld, were thoroughly 'wowed' by the freshness and diversity of their collaborative and individual work. The show was packed to the rafters with drawings, dolls, models, videos, costumes, and miscellaneous objects, all of which resonated with a thoroughly engaged presence of performativity. The catalogue sold out before the end of the show at the first venue of a tour, and copies of the first edition were appearing on eBay at four times their original selling price. Rarely does art practice generate this sort of frenzied cult following, perhaps with the notable exceptions of Warhol and Pettibon. But what lasts? After only a few years (of punishing success, it must be said), many of the original members of the Winnipeg collective have already gone, leaving the obviously talented Neil Farber and the elegant craftsman, and apparent spokesperson, Michael Dumontier, as RAL mainstays. The odd postal contributions from the cult superstar Marcel Dzama appear separate now (literally stuck on as afterthoughts), where initially his quirky vision and powerful imagination were central to the drive and aesthetic of the group. Dzama's career has gone stratospheric in just a few years and he has made the obligatory move to Manhattan, where market pressure seems to be easing his work away from its self-evident home, as watercolour on paper (which unfortunately has a price-ceiling), towards the more lucrative (but less successful) paintings. Similarly, Farber is increasingly evolving a popular solo career and will undoubtedly duplicate the success of Dzama, and it may end up with Dumontier holding together a creaking ship. The other recent oddity (and I would imagine a potentially divisive one) was the showing of The Royal Family at Richard Heller Gallery in Santa Monica (November - December, 2004), wherein Dzama made collaborative works with his sister, Holly (an early member of the Lodge), his wife Shelley Dick, his parents Maurice and Jeanette, and uncle, Neil Faber.  | | The Royal Art Lodge: Untitled, 2004, mixed media on panel, 15.24 x 15.24 cm; courtesy Douglas Hyde Gallery | How can the RAL prevent these obvious and worldly pressures from bursting their bubble, which is predicated on a removed, otherworldly innocence? And where specifically does all this leave the Douglas Hyde show? Exactly eighty six-inch-square panel paintings hang in a neat line around the gallery, forming a distinctly un-visual installation, in comparison to the well-organised and highly engaging mayhem of the Drawing Center. This is clearly not a smart move, and struggles in the cavernous space of the Hyde. Nor is it just due to the usual rigours of Hyde installing, although a selection of works by the individual artists of the Royal Art Lodge, for potential inclusion, was over-reduced to one piece per artist in the final hang. A recent RAL show at Houldsworth in London developed exactly the same linear-hang strategy, which ultimately, and very ironically, foregrounds the individual work over the collective hive, or collective conceptual meaning. Whilst this show introduced the small-painting format, it did, however, benefit from half the works being drawings - the real centre of RAL practice for my money - and the full creative engagement of Dzama. Serpentine Musings has no such diversity, and loads the individual paintings with the pressure of being read in the tradition of the masterpiece culture. It is debatable as to whether they can sustain this, as many pieces depend upon the fading process of collaboration to support uneven ideas and visuals. Certain pieces stand alone, such as the haunting Madam, come with me, we are murdering your husband, but too many of the others blend into formal habits which miss out on the genuine invention of earlier, truly collaborative pieces. This is a valuable and worthwhile exhibition, in that it contains many good individual works, and I am aware that too many of my criticisms may be predicated on an unsustainable past, but it remains an unsatisfying show. The Dialectic of Enlightenment teaches us that too much success, too quickly, is stalked by the shadow of potential failure. David Godbold is an artist and lecturer, based in Dublin.
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