I'm in Edinburgh for the weekend and can feel my brain whirring. I'm feeling quite a bit more optimistic than I did on my last post. I've have lots of things to think about and a few big decisions to make, but more specifically; I'm reinvigorated because I saw a brilliant exhibition yesterday.
It was at the Fruit Market Gallery and it was an exhibition by Canadian artists, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller.
This artist duo have reminded me just how good installation art can be. I have seen numerous exhibitions where artists aim to create new environments within the gallery space; where the viewer is transported and narratives are alluded to. Mike Nelson and John Bock spring to mind as examples.
The exhibition at the Fruit market achieved this more succcessfully than any other I've seen. In the piece 'Opera for a Small Room', you walk into a large dark space and and are drawn to a shed-like cabin, where the only source of light originates. Peering inside reveals a chaotic music den, a place where somebody obviously spends hours shuffling through records, wires up speakers and plays with numerous record players. There are packed shelves and piles of LPs, and all manner of lights; from chandeliers to bulbs in soup cans to coloured disco lights. You become aware of a man's voice, and music which changes the mood according to the dialogue. The narrative rolls, the record players spin, the lighting shifts. The sound moves from one speak to another, smoothly directing the viewer. A train rushes past which rattles the lights and you become aware of the artist's skill and eye for detail. There is sound eminating from outside the cabin as well as a lever system to jangle the chandelier.
Never once do you question the absence of the man, for your imagination has put him right in the middle of it all. The music and the lighting are dazzlingly choregraphed, taking the viewer on his own journey alongside the missing man.
Other exhibits included the chilling 'Killing Machine' for which the viewer is invited to push the red button to set things into motion. This piece gives the viewer enough to make you want to recoil but not so much that you are a passive onlooker of a horror scenario. The political overtones of this piece were not lost.
'The Dark Pool' seemed more playful. The viewer becomes an investigator; searching though a myriad of strange experiments and sound within the context of someone's attic.
I certainly want to know more about these artists and what they have been up to. Their technical ability combined with their aptitude for teasing and luring the viewer make the work very successful. I felt transported directly to the workings of their busy minds.
