- Venue
- Fruitmarket Gallery
- Location
- Scotland
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 successfully than any other I've seen. In the piece 'Opera for a Small Room', you walk into a large dark space 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 speaker to another, smoothly directing the viewer. A train rushes past which rattles the lights and you become aware of the artists' skill and eye for detail. There is also sound eminating from outside the cabin as well as a timed 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 choreographed, taking the viewer on his own journey alongside the missing man.
Other exhibits include 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 are not lost.
'The Dark Pool' seems 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.
