I WENT STRAIGHT FROM THE RA‘S MODERNISM TO THE V&A’S POSTMODERNISM.
EVIDENTLY THESE ERAS ARE IN MANY WAYS THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF ONE ANOTHER, BUT ASPECTS OF THE CONTINENTAL SOCIOECONOMICS OF EACH PERIOD WERE IN PARALLEL, SO I WONDERED IF THIS IN FACT MIGHT THROW UP SOMEAESTHETICAL BUDDIES, OR SOME LIKES WITHIN PRODUCTION AND DESIGN .
SOCIAL SIMILARITIES INCLUDED THE EMPLOYMENT OF EMOTIVE PERSUASION THROUGH MASS PROPAGANDA AND ADVERTISING (GLAVLIT + THE CIA RESPECTIVELY; THE REPUBLICAN AD MORNING IN AMERICA(1984) ALMOST INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM SIMILAR COMMUNIST EFFORTS), THE RESULTING UNCONTROLLED AND UNCONTROLLABLE MONOPOLY OF POLITICAL POWER AND ITS DICKHEAD ENDORSEMENT (STALIN + REAGAN RESPECTIVELY), AND MEANWHILE ELSEWHERE, A SIMILAR COMPLIMENTARY COLOUR PALETTE.
DESPITE THIS THE REALITY WAS IMMEDIATELY EVIDENT. THAT THE NECESSITY FOR FRUGALITY AND SOCIAL FUNCTIONALITY IN THE NEW SOVIET UNION OF 20′S RUSSIA HAD PROPAGATED CLEANLINESS, LINEARITY AND MODESTY OF MATERIAL WITHIN ITS MODERNIST DESIGN, AND BY DIRECT CONTRAST THE DESIGN GATHERING PACE IN POSTMODERNIST 80′S AMERICA, ITSELF DRIVING A NECESSITY TO EXTOL EXCESS AND RECREATIONAL FRIVOLITY, HAD MANIFESTED IN THE USE OF EMBELLISHMENT, PLASTICS AND INDULGENT PRICE-TAGS.
THE FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCES SEEMED TO GO BACK TO THE TERMS OF TRANSCENDENCE AND TRANSITION LAID OUT AT THE RA. IT SEEMED THE LEGACY OF MUCH OF POSTMODERNIST DESIGN WOULD CRACK WITH OLD AGE, AND MORE CERTAINLY IT WAS NOT GOING TO SURVIVE THE POSSIBILITY OF ADAPTATION TO SOCIAL NECESSITY, UNLIKE THE PERPETUALLY YOUTHFUL REVOLUTIONS OF CONSTRUCTIVISM.
BY CHANCE I’D BOOKED MYSELF INTO SHOWS AT THE RA + THE V&A ON THE SAME DAY, AND BY CHANCE THEY WERE ANTITHESES.
AT THE RA IT WAS ‘BUILDING THE REVOLUTION’; A SMALL LOOPED EXHIB IN THE EAVES, DISPLAYING ON ITS INNER CIRCLE A SELECTION OF MAINLY 20′S SOVIET RENDERINGS WITH A FOOT IN ARCHITECTURE OR PRODUCT DESIGN, AND FACING THEM ON THE PERIPHERY, RICHARD PARE‘S MAINLY 90′S LARGE-FORMAT PHOTOGRAPHY OF SOVIET ARCHITECTURE FROM THE SAME ERA. THIS SET UP A GREAT DUALITY TO THE SHOW; ON YOUR LEFT YOU COULD POSIT THE RAVAGES OF TIME FROM THE CREEPING PLANT-LIFE, DISCOLOURED PAINT-JOBS AND CRUMBLING UPKEEP OF EIGHTY YEAR OLD CONSTRUCTIVISM, AND PERSONALLY JUXTAPOSE IT WITH THE AGELESSNESS OF INTENDED REALITY AND CLEAN DRAFTSMANSHIP ON THE RIGHT.
BUT THE CRUX OF ITS CLEVER CURATION FOR ME LAY IN THE AFFIRMATION ON BOTH SIDES OF TRANSCENDENCE AND TRANSITION. ON THE LEFT WHAT WAS INTERESTING ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHED BUILDINGS WAS NOT ONLY THEIR TRANSCENDENCE FROM FUNCTIONAL TO AESTHETICAL (JUST AS ON THE RIGHT THE SKETCHED-OUT ARTWORK FOR THE INTERIOR OF ORENBURG’S FIRST SOVIET THEATRE HAD ITSELF BECOME ARTWORK IN ITS OWN RIGHT), BUT THEIR ADAPTATION FROM INTENT TO PURPOSE, ALTERING WITH SOCIAL NECESSITY. THE ELITIST SANATORIUM, INDUSTRIAL FACTORY AND MUNICIPAL HALL HAD BECOME THE COMMUNAL DWELLING, THE KINDERGARTEN, THE UNINHABITED. THIS JUSTLY ECHOED THE FACETS OF EACH OF THE WORKS ON THE RIGHT, BEING THAT THE WILL OF THE ARTIST WAS TO REMAIN UNDEFINED AND THEREFORE OPEN TO REQUIREMENT AND CHANGE. WHILST DESIGNERS AND ARCHITECTS HERE MAY PERHAPS HAVE BEGUN WITH A PRACTICAL BRIEF, THEY REAFFIRMED THEIR DESIGNS MIGHT COORDINATELY BE APPRECIATED AS WORKS OF ART IN THEMSELVES; EL LISSITZKY STATING HIS ‘BLACK SPHERE (1921-22)’ WAS THE ‘TRANSITIONAL STAGE BETWEEN PAINTING AND ARCHITECTURE’, RECALLING SOLOMON NIKRITIN’S ‘THE CONNECTION OF PAINTING TO ARCHITECTURE (1919-21)’ AND THE CONSTRUCTIVIST TERM ‘TECTONIC PAINTING’, ITSELF DEFINED AS THE ‘TRANSCENDENCE OF ARCHITECTURE INTO TOPOLOGY AND SCIENCE’.
FANTASTIC GEOMETRY + CONVERSION FROM ALL SIDES.
THE V&A’S POSTMODERNISM COULDN’T HAVE BEEN MORE ANTITHETICAL.
READ ABOUT THAT HERE
BELOW, GUSTAV KLUTIS’ DESIGN FOR LOUDSPEAKER NO.7 (1922) AS PART OF THE PROPAGANDA INITIATIVE
TODAY ENDED EYEBALL MASSAGE - THE HAYWARD’S COMPACT SELECTROSPECTIVE OF SWISS ARTISTPIPILOTTI RIST. IN THE YEARS SINCE DISCOVERING HER WORK I’VE BEEN UNABLE TO FIND A MULTIMEDIA ARTIST MORE ENTERTAINING IN THE EXPLORATION OF IMAGINED POSSIBILITIES AND FEMININE TABOO. HER SWEET COMBINATION OF LOUD VIDEO SATURATES, INTRICATE MINIATURE INSTALLATION AND WORLDS WITHIN WRY WORLDS IS MORE THAN A MASSAGE FOR THE UNIVERSAL EYE.
I HAVE NO DOUBT STEPHANIE ROSENTHAL, CHEIF CURATOR ON THE SHOW, IS AS MUCH AN ADVOCATE OF RIST, AS EXPOSED IN THE DEPTH OF SENSITIVITY WITHIN HER INTERIOR CONSTRUCTION – REFLECTIVE OF RIST’S WORK BUT NOT AT BATTLE WITH IT – AND A FLUIDITY OF MOVEMENT BETWEEN PEICES, WELL EXECUTED NOT LEAST FOR LATECOMER CROWD CONTROL.
I WATCHED TWO THINGS UNFOLD. A FANTASTIC ENTRANCE. THE GLORY OF RIST’S KNICKERBOCKER ‘MASSACHUSETTS CHANDELIER’ AND VAST RED KANSASSY ‘SUBURB BRAIN‘ WERE CERTAIN TO HAVE BRILLIANTLY RATCHETED A VIRGIN AUDIENCE INTO THE EXCITEMENT OF RIST’S ULTERIOR WORLD. THE MINIATURES ENSURED THEY’D KEEP THEIR EYES PEELED, THE AIRING OF DIRTY KNICKERS STAKED THE CHEEK IN CHEEK. ALL CLEVERLY PUSHING TOWARD THE EXPECTATION THAT FOR THE UNINITIATED THIS WAS TO BE AN UNUSUAL AND MULTI-SENSORY SHOW.
THE OTHER SIDE UNFOLDED FURTHER INSIDE. HERE, SO FOCUSED WERE THE TEXTS IN PROMOTING THE IDEA THAT THE WORK BE VIEWED IN AN ALTERNATIVE OR INSTINCTUAL FASHION THAT THE OPPOSITE OF THE ‘DO NOT TOUCH!’ EXHIBITION HAD IN IT’S CAUTIONARY ‘TOUCH!’ ‘FEEL!’ ‘LIE DOWN!’ SEEMINGLY BECOME JUST THE SAME. ONE WAS ABLE TO PERCEIVE THE CLASSIC TIMID VOYEUR’S EMBRACE; AN AUDIENCE SO CAREFUL TO ADHERE TO EXPERIENCING THE WORK EXACTLY AS ADVISED THAT THERE SEEMED TO BE MISSING A PERSONAL CONNECTION TO THE WEALTH OF IMMERSIVE SILLINESS AND CLEVER QUESTIONING RIST HAD SO SIMPLY LAID OUT.
PERHAPS ONE DOES SOMETIMES REQUIRE A PUSH TOWARD THE ‘CORRECT’ WAY TO EXPERIENCE AN ARTIST’S WORK, BUT I LEFT THE HAYWARD FEELING THAT WITH AN ARTIST SUCH AS PIPILOTTI RIST, DIRECT INSTRUCTION WAS AT BEST SUPERFLUOUS AND AT WORST DETRIMENTAL. THE ‘SUGGESTED STIPULATION’ HAD IN SOME WAY ANNULLED HER POINT; THAT ONE SHOULD EXPERIENCE ART NOT AS ONE IS TOLD TO, BUT AS A TRUSTED ACCOMPLICE. ABLE TO GLEAN ONES OWN GAIN, INSTINCTUALLY AND WITHOUT FEAR, EXACTLY AS ONE LIKES.
I DIGRESS SLIGHTLY. DESPITE THIS, THE EXHIBITION ITSELF WAS AN ACUTE AND ABSORBING WELCOME TO THE RIST NEWCOMER, AND AN INVENTIVE AND COMFORTING RETURN TO THE ENTHUSIAST. AS I CLIMBED THE STAIRS TO THE GEORGE CONDO WITH THE STRAINS FROM RIST’S OLD BANDLES RAINES PROCHAINESECHOING IN MY HEAD, I LOOKED BACK DOWN OVER THE ENTRANCE; A SANGUINE REMINDER OF THE INCLUSIVE AND IMMERSIVE NATURE OF RIST’S WORK. CONDO THANKFULLY TOOK MOST PEOPLE TO THE COMMODE, WHERE I DISCOVERED THERE WAS ONE MORE TO SEE, EXACTLY AS WE LIKED
AFTER SOME MONTHS OF LIAISING, INVENTION AND PREPARATORY DRAMATICS, LAST NIGHT WAS MY DIRECTORIAL DEBUT AT THE TOP OF THE GHERKIN, REQUESTED BY UBIQUITOUS DUO ANGELLA NEWELL AND HAYLEY SUDBURY OF THE TASTING SESSIONS TO PROMOTE THEIR BRILLIANT AND RATHER GROWN-UP NEW VENTURE ‘SMITH’.
SCRIPTING SOME OF THE MOST DYNAMIC PERFORMERS IN CURRENT EXPERIENCIAL THEATRE - THE SENSATIONAL MOLLY CARROLL AS AN ENTOXICATED TALLULAH, DELICATE CINEMATOGRAPHER LUCY PAWLAK CAPTURING SPELLBOUND SPECTATORS, AND A HOST OF JUDICIOUS DOUBLE-AGENTS STOOGING INCOGNITO THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT. I EVEN MANAGED TO ROPE IN THE INCREDIBLE HARRIET FLEURIOT AS MY STAGE MANAGER (A TRUE MULTIFACETER).
INNOVATORS FROM ACCROSS THE BOARD, AMONGST THEM LIQUOR-INVENTOR ALEXKAMMERLING, CULINARY EXPERIMENTALIST ARNAUD STEVENS AND 69 COLEBROOKE ROW, ENTERTAINED THE UNSUSPECTING IN BEGUILING DISGUISES WITH FOUR MULTI-SENSORY COURSES.
PAIRED WITH COCKTAILS CAROUSES, ALL WERE INTRODUCED BY YOURS TRULY IN MY EXTRA CAPACITY AS VINAGERY OCTOGENARIAN FORTUNE-TELLER ’URSULA UNDRESSED’.
We were all super aroused. Seamless, defectless moves were witnessed. I wept on celluloid. But we expect this kind of hyper-delivery when under our own Saam Farahmand’s particular, curiously evoking direction. Released today on Nowness; his resulting seductive cinematography for the indecently schmokinTom Vek.
