- Venue
- Elastic Residence
- Starts
- Thursday, October 13, 2011
- Ends
- Sunday, November 27, 2011
- Address
- Former office of Deutsche Bank AG 46 New Broad Street London EC2N 1JD
- Location
- London
In the half-paneled office, reminiscent of Hauser & Wirth, Piccadilly, or Saatchi’s City Hall, Marc Quinn’s flowers in silicon at -80 degrees speak of Marx’s “fixed fast-frozen relations” while Beat Streuli’s Tracey Emin-like passer-by scrutinizes the room as though not quite sure what to make of it. Daisy Delaney’s work modified from the Stirling Ackroyd signboard declares Sterling Destroyed; and if you phone the number on the board you’ll be answered “Bank of England, Good Morning” by an unknowing participant in this part-performative work. The banker would look straight at the woman in Dolores Sanchez Calvo’s oil painting facing the desk in the office, her hands covering her face. Would he care from what she hides? Deej Fabyc’s performance to camera takes the woman in the painting as it’s starting point; she’s on the TV screen, walking into the office and sitting at the desk. Perhaps Cassandra; seeing the future. In Renaissance Florence, three banks, including the Medici Bank owned by the great art patrons, and thought too big to fail, collapsed when King Edward IV of England defaulted on his debts. This week, there is a further echo, as major European Banks, need further bailouts – because they thought that sovereign debt could never default. This exhibition shows that an uneasy relationship between art and money still endures.
