Ed Beaugard
posted 5 July 2007

The third exhibit in a three-part series whose theme is ‘The Mallarmé Propositions’, closed at the weekend after a month-long run. The exhibition’s title, ‘In Defense of Ardor’, while not a call to man the barricades, did bring together a group of young artists whose work the curators - João Ribas and Becky Smith - felt attempted to comment on or reference current political issues as well as being relatively free from irony or emotional distancing that characterises so much contemporary art.

The result was partly successful, and further attempts will have to be made if the reign of irony and detachment is to be overthrown. For this reviewer, the most effective piece in the show was a video-loop titled, ‘Project for a Revolution’ by Johanna Billing, in which she re-shoots a scene from ‘Zabriskie Point’ a film made by Antonioni in 1970 at the height of the student and anti-Vietnam War movement. In Billing’s piece, the students are filmed in a large lecture or meeting hall, sitting or standing silently. Other scenes briefly show students outside, and entering or leaving the lecture hall. A copier is shown printing blank pieces of paper.

Billing’s piece reminded this reviewer very strongly of Kieslowski’s films, particularly ‘The Decalogue’, ‘Red’ and ‘White’. Kieslowski’s movies are partly about the end of politics or the end of the dream of utopia. In his films, the characters are placed in moral dilemmas, and must struggle to find the right action. Kieslowski very indirectly draws parallels between that and events such as the French Revolution, where people were placed in complex political situations while attempting to create a better world. The silence of the students in Billings’ piece was representative of the absence of politics, since the scene in the original Antonioni film was actually a political meeting.

The few pieces that tried to be directly political weren’t able to convey clearly what they were saying. Two paintings by Dana Frankfort each showed a Star of David that had been partly smeared or smudged, perhaps conveying the artist’s unhappiness with some of Israel’s policies in the Middle East, but exactly what the artist was unhappy about wasn’t clear. However, they were interesting as paintings. Julieta Aranda’s work, a large white piece of paper spray-painted in pink with the message – ‘I’ve lost confidence with everybody in the country at the moment’ – seemed to show her dissatisfaction with the current political situation in the United States, but it mostly functioned as a statement about someone’s feelings of alienation/disgust only. The same sort of ‘Not In My Name’ passivity that characterised the anti-Iraq war movement, for example, seems to have seeped into some of the work.

Another example of this is Otto Muehl’s short film from 1967, ‘Wehrertuchtigung’, which brought to this reviewer’s mind Abu Graib and the mistreatment of the prisoners, but aside from turning the viewer into a bystander to human suffering, nothing was communicated except a feeling of helplessness or disgust. Jacob Robichaux’s paper drawings were effective and interesting in what’s called a formal way, but not directly political. Especially interesting was the middle piece, ‘Untitled’, which conveyed a sense of space greater than the actual size of the work.

One frustrating thing for this reviewer at least, was that the intriguing title for this series of exhibitions, ‘The Mallarmé Propositions’ was not explained anywhere in the press information or was only briefly referenced. The curators didn’t explain how they related these propositions to the shows themselves. Perhaps it was a nod to Derrida, for whom Mallarmé was an important figure, but one can’t be sure. This lack of clarity extended to the show which was a mix of directly political and more conceptual or constructive work, some effective and worthwhile seeing. At the same time the works seemed to some degree to be at odds within themselves and with each other, given what was being attempted. This is reflective of the current situation in the Anglo-American world: disorientation, confusion mixed with feelings of outrage and helplessness.