- Venue
- Gasworks
- Location
For a start Gasworks was shut when I arrived. 15 minutes later the gallery staff turned up to unlock the building weighed down with newly bought crates of booze. OK, not too bad. But I had been standing outside, freezing, on the day of the Ovals ‘Aussie Rules’ game amongst 1000’s of marauding Aussie football fans. I’d also given one v. nice guy a really hard time about the gallery being closed -if that was you, Anup Mathew Thomas, I’m really sorry. Love your work! (Eek). When the staff did turn up there was no apology and it took another 10 minutes to turn the exhibition lights and TV Monitors on. To top it all off I then spent a maddening 5 minutes tweaking each of the four TV monitors in order to get any volume out of them. (Grrr).
The Disabled Avant-Garde Today is a collaboration between Katherine Araniello and Aaron Williamson that pays homage to some of the artists various artistic influences, including Martin Kippenberger, Leigh Bowery, Jake and Dinos Chapman and cartoon characters Tom and Jerry. The video tributes are made to spectacularly low specifications with gaudy digital effects, bad sound, smeary make up and homemade costumes. In addition, Araniello and Williamson’s cringe-worthily bad renditions cruelly re-enforce the vast world of difference, in style, grace and aplomb, between the disabled duo and the work of their artistic heroes.
Each video contains heavy subtitling. Clearly, the subtitles are an access consideration, included so that the deaf and hard of hearing can fully appreciate the work. However, given Araniello and Williamson’s irreverent treatment of issues surrounding ‘The Disabled’ the subtitles themselves must be considered as part of the artist’s critique. The slightly laboured "#Cheery music is playing throughout#" that periodically rolls across the screen in ‘Busby Berkeley’, 2006 not only informs the profoundly deaf of any musical content but is also brutally tongue in cheek when viewed against the artists’ absurd attempt at a Berkeley-esque performance in which Araniello is helpless to remove the feather headdress that repeatedly blows into her eyes on a wet, windy day in Trafalgar Square. The inclusion of the clunky text across this scene highlights the stark contrast between seen and heard and compounds the mercilessly self-reflexive and uncomfortable content of the work. Fortunately for Gasworks, this clever use of subtitling also means the monitor audio does not have to work properly in order to get the full benefit of the artists’ puns.
In addition to their on-screen antics, several objects pictured in Araniello and Williamson’s videos are displayed in the gallery space. The artist’s empty Tom and Jerry costumes are hung alongside ‘Tom and Jerry’ 2006, including the humongous mouse outfit custom-made to fit round Araniello’s electric wheelchair. Also, tucked neatly underneath the monitor for ‘Leigh Bowery’ 2006, are the white high-heel shoes Williamson wears whilst performing Bowery. These are a cheap, scuffed pair that Bowery himself would surely not have been seen in dead or alive. Within the exhibition these abject objects re-animate the video performances and hit home the pathetic nature of Araniello and Williamson’s pursuit to capture the essence of their heroes whilst highlighting the monstrousness of their own creations.
All in all I’m not sure that ceaselessly taking the piss out of yourself and your disability constitutes Avant-Guard, whether its ‘Disabled’ or not-Indeed, Disabled people continue to be the butt of many people’s cruel jokes outside the gallery setting-but the work was refreshing in tackling those very issues. Oh, and PS. I stole a David Blandy magazine on my way out of the gallery, so the balance between Gasworks and myself is now safely restored!
