- Venue
- Hollybush Gardens
- Location
Disordered bodies fractured minds is Dutch artist Falke Pisano’s second solo exhibition at Hollybush Gardens, London. Dominating the gallery’s single room is Disordered bodies fractured minds (Private M., Patient A., & Traveller H.), a work inspired by the artist’s research into written representations of the human mind in a state of acute crisis. The work consists of a projected video diptych accompanied by an inexpressive male voice slowly reading three texts that focus on the subject. The first examines the disintegration of the mind’s ability to communicate and command the body that occurs in victims of shell shock, the second is an extract from French poet Antonin Artaud’s description of his descent into depression, and the third is a first-hand account of the hallucinogenic effects of the drug Masculine. On one screen is a montage of film clips depicting various aspects of the aftermath of war, such as razed buildings and traumatised refugees, while the other shows the artist’s reproductions of Otto Dix and George Grosz’s drawings of war wounded. Combined, these screens offer an unflinching portrayal of the tangible damage inflicted on both the body and the city, while the narration, which does not indicate when one man’s story ends and another begins, is a steady but unrelenting exploration of the human mind when it is unable to maintain a hold on its surroundings. Yet, with its recycled footage, reliance on the authority of first-hand accounts, and a narrative that does not need to be seen from the beginning but can be walked in on at any point by the wandering viewer, it is distinctly reminiscent of the educational films that often accompany exhibitions of historical artefacts. As such, the exhibition remains a conventional and unchallenging depiction of a very complex subject.
