- Venue
- Serpentine Sackler Gallery
- Location
- London
Today We Reboot the Planet – Adrian Villar Rojas
Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London
28th September – 10th November 2013
Approaching the galley entrance we are immediately confronted by the colossal rear of a petrified clay elephant sculpture bearing the weight of a support beam which is suggested to be holding up the gallery. The beam forces itself down upon the elephant’s back as its head is crushed into the surrounding wall and floor, inspiring concepts of the ’weight of the world’ being on its shoulders. The ‘elephant in the room’ phrase has never been more apparent as Adrian Villar Rojas’ installation piece personifies our modern civilization’s problems which are commonly ignored: War, poverty and environmental destruction. Its body cracks and decays in result of our problems becoming too substantial for it to endure, signifying time is running out for us if no change can be implemented.
The contrast of the elephant’s rough texture against the smooth corner pillars of the installation leads us around the central temple-like architecture to discover the first room. Three sets of parallel shelving provide the display for various clay artifacts contained in the unchanged exposed brickwork of the secret gunpowder stores of 1805, in which the new gallery has been constructed around. The ‘frozen in time’ appearances of the objects propose a period to reflect on our world, redeeming us with a last chance to alter. The grey ash-like textures of the sculptures advocate the notion of nuclear warfare and these are the surviving fossilised organisms presented. The wide assortment of objects persuade thoughts of what creature collected them, a descendant of our race in a distant future gathering the objects in an attempt to restore the planet as suggested in the title? Or an alien race’s result of an expedition to our dead planet and these are their findings? Sitting alongside plants, animals, tools and digital technology, an effigy of Kurt Cobain is penetrated with life restoring water from the plastic bottles inserted into it in a possible failed attempt at the restoration of his life. These particular choices of objects Rojas has used could represent the ingredients for a perfect world: food, technology and culture, in the opinion of the artist or as before mentioned creature. Physical vegetation grows around the solidified objects signifying that life will continue after we have become extinct connecting with Jameson’s – “It has become easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” [i](Fredric Jameson, 2003). I believe we cannot imagine an alternate method of living as we have become too dependable on ‘the system’ and modern technology, therefore we can only predict the extinction of the human existence as life without capitalism appears impossible.
Leading out of the first room we arrive at the contrasting emptiness of the second room producing a space to reflect on the exhibition in the stillness created. A stained glass window bearing an insignia of the Sun in purple and a blue glass window of a flower emit beams of coloured light above the adjacent doorways. This continues the idea of providing and conserving life as without the Sun there would not be life on our planet. The church-like atmosphere produced, possibly made by the otherworldly creature, gives the impression of the room being accommodated for humans, prepared to be implemented when the planet is ‘rebooted’ as religion is a human creation. This proposed alien being has evidently studied our civilization and understood that we function more productively with the control of religion. We fear being condemned to Hell to be punished for our sins or work harder and respect our fellow man to gain our passage into Heaven. This room could also be a sanctuary for the creature as it may be human and a believer in religious practice, a last remnant from our destroyed world that still has faith in restoration. The being could also be the personification of God as the first room could be perceived as his workshops for the creation of a second Earth as ours has failed, the second room being an example of a place of worship for his creations.
The room is calm and near silent but interrupted by the chinking of the loose bricks underfoot, emanating from visitor’s movements from the outer spaces of the gallery. The echoing bricks sound like metal being hammered or the inside of a factory, resonating with the suggestion of working with construction materials to build a new world. The bricks are laid without any cement which induces the consideration of the instable foundations of our society that is further amplified by the elephant sculpture supporting the building. The Linear arrangement of the bricks guides us through the gallery, always driving us forward. This encourages a relation to time as the bricks’ pattern is infinite, suggesting again that time will carry on without the human race, providing us little significance in relation to the rest of the universe.
The central inner building has an ancient shrine-like quality as the monumental shapes of the unfamiliar architecture are cracked and in a state of ruin. This confuses the idea of the building being storage for components for a planetary ‘reboot’ as we are lead to believe it is hypothetically staged in the future, relocating the setting into an even more distant future. The hope that the plan will succeed is abolished as we realise that this is a tomb of failure rather than a haven for the rebirth of life.
Rojas has transported us into a time capsule echoing the inevitable demise of our planet, reminding us that without revolution our current method of living will not sustain the human existence. Yet a glimmer of hope remains as something still attempted to reinstate our civilization, adding at least some value to our existence.
Reece Straw
08 November 2013
[i] Fredric Jameson. (2003). Future City. Available: newleftreview.org/II/21/fredric-jameson-future-city. Last accessed 04/10/13.
