Jo Higgins

January 12, 2014

Review

REVIEW: Christian Boltanski, Chance, Carriageworks

Jo Higgins

January 12, 2014

Review

Christian Boltanski, The Wheel of Fortune, 2011-2014 — Christian Boltanski, *The Wheel of Fortune*, 2011-2014

I had the opportunity to attend the opening of Christian Boltanski’s Chance last week and to clap eyes on the man himself. I’ve written elsewhere about his ongoing and intensely moving work Les Archive des Coeurs but Chance, in its first Australian outing, proves just as contemplative and yet another deft expression by the artist of the randomness of life.

Reels of black and white photographs of the squished faces of Polish newborns, taken from newspaper announcements, stream through an enormous metal structure like a factory assembly line.

The inconsequence of these independent ‘miracles’ when thrown together en masse is made all the sharper when a bell rings and the projector shudders to a halt, highlighting one random baby, which, regardless, still looks much like the next. Is this one human, singled out, destined for greatness? Notoriety? History? Or will the filmstrip crank back to life and commit them to obscurity once more? Wheel of Fortune indeed. It would be cruel if it wasn’t depressingly true.

Other elements that make up Chance include Last News from Humans, two huge scoreboards at either end of Wheel of Fortune. These counters are constantly ratcheting up huge numbers in red and green respectively. How Boltanski has got his hands on these statistics I don’t know but the flux of life is brutally quantified by this livestream of numbers totalling all the deaths and births taking place around the world in that moment.

And lastly there’s Be New. This work reminds me of his earlier work Les Suisses Morts, where identikit faces are assembled from the photographs of dead Swiss. Here the dead Swiss are intercut with the Polish newborns, their foreheads, eyes and mouths flickering like fruit in a slot machine. It’s up to the visitor to hit stop and thus create their own unique portrait – one of a possible 1.5 million combinations.

Christian Boltanski, Be New, 2011-2014. — Christian Boltanski, *Be New*, 2011-2014.

All these works have enormous potential to be quite morbid and certainly depressing but Boltanski himself describes all his work as a desperate attempt to preserve

life and there is something beautifully epic about these narratives of life and in/significance and chance that is quite humbling.

Until 23 March.

The problem with 'Australia'

Jo Higgins

September 20, 2013

Review, Musings

So I went to the press preview for 'Australia' at the Royal Academy on Tuesday. I'm writing a review for Artlink and for a couple of weeks now I've been worried my instincts (that it would be disappointing, conservative, terrible... that my snobbery and cultural bias would cloud my objectivity...) would get in the way of me looking at the show with an open mind.

And so I tried. And I failed. Because it really isn't great. Does it warrant the casual racism and vitriol dressed as criticism it's receiving in the British press? Well, no. But it's not great. It's not even very good. I'm going to need to let my thoughts percolate for a while yet in the hope that something by way of coherent argument emerges. Because right now it's just an exasperated mash of frustrations.

I can't believe this is the same institution that hosted the seminal Sensation back in 1997. I mean, where's all that curatorial chutzpah gone?

What a missed opportunity. National Gallery of Australia, I'm blaming you too.

Margate: An away day and a visit to Turner Contemporary

Jo Higgins

September 4, 2013

Musings

Turner Contemporary, welcoming their one millionth visitor.

We took the REcreative Editorial Board to Margate for an Away Day yesterday. It was a threefold opportunity – the chance to support the group through an Action Learning Set in the morning; a space to dedicate to some reflection and evaluation of the website; and the chance to visit Turner Contemporary and see the brilliant exhibition ‘Curiosity – Art and The Pleasures of Knowing’.

‘Curiosity’ is a Hayward touring show – it passed me by completely on the Southbank – and it’s only at Turner for another couple of weeks now I think but it’s well worth the trip (especially if the sun is out and you can eat fish and chips on the beach afterwards. Tick.)

Tacita Dean, Manhattan Mouse Museum, 16mm film (still), 2011 — Tacita Dean, *Manhattan Mouse Museum*, 16mm film (still), 2011

Considered, intelligent, layered, eloquent, witty and fascinating are just a handful of adjectives to describe what it’s like to spend even an hour wandering through the show and curiosity is in equal parts piqued and unpacked. Historical displays of work by da Vinci and Galileo keep company with miniature anatomical models made from ivory, 18th century lithographs documenting strange discoveries and stranger stories, while contemporary works by Susan Hiller, Jimmy Durham and Tacita Dean among many others articulate curiosity for the 21st century.

Dean’s 16mm portrait of the ageing pop god Claes Oldenburg as he shuffles about his studio quietly dusting and rearranging his extensive of found objects, is particularly gentle and yet incredibly moving.

The morning session was my first experience of an action learning set and it was such a worthwhile thing to have offered to the board’s members, who are all variously about to start university, currently studying or now out in the ‘real world’ and struggling to find the balance between paid employment and artistic practice. My colleague and I felt quite strongly that giving the morning over to the board and their own concerns was important, for their own professional development but also, to develop this ‘space’ as somewhere where they can support each other while supporting and evolving the site.

And then in the afternoon, we gave some time to evaluating the last 12 months, which is how long we’ve had the board now, and reflecting on what’s worked well in terms of content, how we might better use social media to distribute said content and evaluating the role and success – and experience – of the board. Lots of outcomes and lots to think about. And a lot to be proud of too I think.

Add in the fish and chips, and the late-afternoon ice cream and really, it was a solidly successful day.

REVIEW: Christian Boltanski, Chance, Carriageworks

OTHER POSTS

The problem with 'Australia'

OTHER POSTS

Margate: An away day and a visit to Turner Contemporary

OTHER POSTS