- Venue
- Herald St Ltd
- Location
- London
Whilst this new body of work continues Bronstein’s interest in architectural typologies, it represents a shift away from his usual interventionist strategies toward a more performative approach. Exposing similar tropes to those which Bronstein has in the past tapped from tableau or tours of 1980s London buildings or fantastical architectural plans – notions of façade, demand and display – with Jail, Bronstein unusually turns to the posturing figures of two filmed performers.
Life-sized and unpolished, the muscular body of a heeled woman in dated white cocktail attire parades the length of ceiling-to-floor projection Walker. Enticing the viewer to join her darkened stage, the face-to-face onslaught of screen conjures an arresting immediacy – a sense heightened by a strong soundtrack that posits the viewer in the time of renaissance
European courts. The figure’s antiquated movements jar with her 80s garb and
the imperfections of her performance – the give of an ill-fitting shoe or the quake of a mistimed step – provoke tensions between this contemporary scene and the idealised sounds of courtly dance which infiltrate the space. Utilising the gentrified manners of renaissance romance to sell her wares, this street walker’s forced imitation presents an unlikely parallel between the archaic ancestry of her art and its contemporary embodiments.
Further extending the conceit of countenance, Bronstein’s second film Origin of Sprezzatura, features a similarly posturing Baroque male. Gently curtsying in an intimate parody of courtly theatrical dances, his filmic scene fails to conceal its contemporary setting and a tell-tale wash of white introduces a certain sting of irony. For the origin of the Italian word sprezzatura, found in Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier, is the air of nonchalance often adopted with the aim of concealing all trace of art and effort.
Playfully pitting social affectations against perceived failings, Bronstein’s engaging body of new work presents a pleasing new direction for his subtle, now-nuanced practice.
