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Carroll/fletcher
'Carroll / Fletcher supports established and emerging artists whose work transcends traditional categorisation, using diverse media in order to explore socio-political or technological themes.'(accessed online 23/05/2017)
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Since the first time I visited this commercial gallery, I thought there was something interesting about them. Even though at the time I was looking for art with a stance, this gallery struck me as engaged critically, implicated even, in political discussions that involve the role of art in society. Furthermore they seem to be interested in exploring technology, and in engaging in new dialogues that question the citizen, the human and the artist in the artworld. It intrigued me that they had such cunning work that I somehow didn't feel comfortable with. They aren't shy about their status of commercial gallery. I think that their curatorial line is an artwork in itself because it's somehow wholesomely aware and honest, as well as content driven, which I don't see as often as I wish. Eva and Franco Mattes: Abuse Standards Violations was an example of a content driven exhibition and it opened a window into an emotional side of technology I never thought about, setting forward all sorts of questions related to the people behind what should you post on the internet.
Embracing a variety of stances, or lack thereof, Caroll/Fletcher seem to be able to provide me with experiences that not only leave me thinking but also allow me to indulge in an art that is meaningful and exciting.
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'Neo-liberal Lulz'
Group Show
Untitled SAS, Emilie Brout and Maxime Marion, 2015
Jennifer Lynn Morone
This exhibition was the occasion in which I got acquainted with the gallery. It was recommended to me because of its socio-political output and the way in which it took advantage of the role of art in the Neo-liberal's ideology expansion. I was very uncomfortable with it. I was trying to understand politicised art and the approach of the artists in this show was politicised because of the nature of the content, but they adhered well to the concept of "lulz" more than a critique of the system in which they/we are all in. This exhibition was crucial for me to understand that comment, critique and stance are different approaches and they all are valid in their terms. I felt that being an opinionated person made me expect that other people must have an opinion too, which proved to be wrong when I saw this exhibition. Art can expose, pose questions, forward proposals, take actions, make comments no matter what the subject matter is: even if about socio-political aspects of our lives ('a life-like art' in the words of Alana Jelinek - "This is not Art: activism and other non-Art"), an artist's work can manifest in all sorts of approaches. I came to find this at a latter stage as well when researching the arc/context of ecological/environmental art.
'And yet my mask is powerful'
Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme
Solo Show
Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme exhibit was one of a kind. The whole gallery was fully transformed (they painted the first room in Cobalt Blue which made me walk the pavement up and down about 4 times, checking if I was at the right place). This exhibition was immersive, it created an environment, filled with ancientness but the adrenaline of discovery. The use of projections was exceptional, used in corners, with similar videos to create a sensation of surrounding landscape. The shadows produced by everyday objects like carpenters tools, projected shapes of archeological statues. The aesthetics were powerful and the fact that the location shot was a historical and derelict site in Palestine made the political side like if it was a bad dream. This piece had somehow the power to isolate or freeze the present, and because of references to the past, it felt like I was somehow in the future. The short-breathing in the soundtrack made all the difference and the beautiful, yet simple, poetry written both in English and Arabic transported me to an experiential dimension, which the intense overall green shadow play also epitomised. There was a feeling of adrenaline in the piece, which was modernised by the clever, crafty and skilful use of technology. The cold-cut lyricism contrasted with the historical and emotional stance of the actors which raised complex questions of cultural identity and personal account.
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With technology at their service, questions pertinent to everyone 's choice on dealing with reality where poised: do we face it, do we hide from it, do we run away from it, do we ignore it, do we fight it?
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'Eighteen Pumpjacks' - Mishka Henner
in Looking at one thing and thinking of something else, part II
an artwork in a group show
Barnett Newman - Canto X
Lithograph 1963-4
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Henner has titled his pieces after Newman's work Eighteen Cantos. There are resemblances between both, mainly aesthetic, and if one is to look at Newman's entire work, one could say that the existential tone of his colour field abstractions could relate to the questions that Henner might be wanting us to ask ourselves. While Cantos was an experimental artwork in lithography it's still mentioned as an important work in his career because the challenges of dealing with a printing method (as opposed to painting), caused him to consider other visual elements such as margins as leaders of space management and it became a crucial symphonic element in the work, which he considered musical.
That is yet another cross-reference, because who has ever heard a pumpjack knows there is a rhythm to it when at work, making a deeper reading of Henner's work, far-fetchdely, musical. I say far-fetchdely, because the pictures are taken from a satelite's view, which do suggest only white noise, a hum, or no noise at all, because of the distance to its subject matter. What sound is there at such high altitudes?
Mishka Henner - Eighteen Pumpjacks Archival pigment prints, 2012
I have come across Henner's work last year during a symposium on photography. One of the directors of the Gothenburg Institute in Sweden, mentioned him as one of the pioneers of Surveillance Art and showed his project No Man's Land (2011). I remember thinking at the time the concept to be similiar in ways to an altered book, in which you appropriate the images/book and alter according to your concept, incorporating the concept of the original book at hand: he was talking about surveillance but focusing on prostitutes in a no man's land which in itself is not surveilled, yet . A near paradox, interesting nevertheless.
What really drawn me into Eighteen Pumpjacks (2012) was the colour compositions, which were vivid, and the moment I recognised the shape of a pumpjack in the pictures. I was rather jealous of these pictures, I have been travelling to oil refineries to get the "perfect" shot, unsuccessfully so far, and there they were eighteen, no less, aerial (satellite) shots of this machines we don't really see every day because they are heavily secured and protected (at least in Europe). (the closest thing I saw was Jason de Caires Tailor's sculpture at Eden Project).
These prints were made using archival paper and pigment ink, which is still inkjet, but with a level of purity much higher than regular inkjet cartridges. The effect is superb, they look like paintings, even with texture. Striking and alive, some of the pictures made me want to touch the actual ground they were depicting, I could nearly smell it.
Given that I am very much into this subject of research, my judgement may be biased, but when I saw such beautiful pictures in the context of oil exploration, I felt guilt for thinking that such a detrimental activity can be made to look good. I sometimes have the same mixed feelings when going to refineries, one of admiration for man's engineering abilities and the complex systems that he has created, and one of disgust for how man is using those abilities. Was this his intention? To conflict our aesthetic with our real life views on the subject, or is he suggesting that because we can't access these infrastructures by foot, we can do so by air, exacerbating the surveillance idea? Or is he just interested in the aesthetic compositions on the land that these create?
Henner has also done further (satellite/drone) work on oil fields in America and Libya and other target locations, which to me, suggests that his discourse is not purely aesthetic. On the contrary, it is suggesting to me that he is using a little detournement by denouncing the existence of locations that are heavily secured primarily because of corporate interest, secondarily because of national security, via surveillance, which is the inherant control mechanism these institutions use to protect themselves. A subversion of their own surveillance is embodied by the concept of "policing the police", surveilling their own surveillance by bypassing it aerially.