- Venue
- Raven Row
- Location
- London
Google “Morgan Fisher” and you’ll find a jewellery designer and an English keyboard player before you stumble across the underrated video artist that features in Raven Row’s latest show. Although less well known in the UK, the artist from Los Angeles has been making works for over 40 years, including exhibiting at The Whitney Museum in New York and our very own Tate Modern. The artist’s first solo show in London is accompanied with a new specially written essay by Stuart Comer (Curator of Film at Tate Modern), so the sights were set high.
Morgan Fisher became known in the late sixties for his films and these are undoubtedly the best works in the exhibition – the blue print drawings have something about them, but the paintings don’t come close.
The filmstrips used in seminal video works like Standard Gauge and the medium itself allow Fisher to successfully explore the means of production in film, something that is not replicated in his paintings. Fisher’s films are usually classified as part of the structuralist movement, for the way he “transparently” uses the medium itself to demystify the film process. But don’t be put off by the terminology, the video works on show need little previous knowledge of film theory and with an almost humorous and ironic touch open our eyes to the things that happen “behind” the film – such as the discarded subtitle frames, the film crew taking a break, etc.
Two-dimensional works like French Toast Painting and Protective Coloration are a failed exploration of the act of painting and the medium itself, while Back and Forth Paintings falls short of an expressionist exercise. There isn’t even a comparison with the short videos like The Wilkinson Household Fire Alarm – a great “readymade” where the viewer stops to look at the alarm knowing that it will go off at any second, a moment of tension before the unnerving noise makes you want to run for the door.
You have to give it to the Curator, Alex Sainsbury’s– the space feels unlike any other in the East End. Perhaps it is the history of the space and the architecture, but Raven Row feels less like the sterile white cubes that you find spread out across East London and more like a unique exhibiting body – or like visiting a friend’s house. Fisher has used the space cleverly, if not entirely, and has created two site-specific works for the landing in the staircase.
One of the two new works for TV monitors, Protective Coloration, is a humorous exercise with an underlying critical tone for the “cyborgs” we’ve all become, where Fisher “dresses” himself with his personal collection of brightly coloured plastic objects.
Audiences are generally apathetic to video. Most people, especially non-regular gallery goers, find it inaccessible and boring – most times baffled by the unusual narratives or lack of them – a sign of what Hollywood has done to our understanding of the moving image. Fisher’s work however is an excellent starting point to enjoying video, with visually accomplished works that have the nostalgic feel of those made in the 70’s, and a narrative that explores the making of film itself without leaving the spectator with a feeling that he’s out of his depth. There is no point in trying to describe one of my favourite works (Red Boxing Gloves/Orange Kitchen Gloves), as I would take all the fun out of it but I highly recommend you visit the gallery and experience it for yourself.
