How is it that I’ve missed Francis Alÿs in all the years I’ve visited galleries and studied art? A modern and contemporary art enthusiast I admit I wasn’t even familiar with the artist’s name when I saw the Tate advertise the opening of his summer exhibition, ‘A Story of Deception’. Fortunately I didn’t miss it, even though I left it very late as the exhibition is scheduled to close on 5th September.
I remember what first intrigued me about Alÿs’ work. At a recent panel discussion I attended at Tate, a man in the audience stood up and asked a question, referencing a work of Alÿs’ in which the artist pushes a block of ice through a city until it melts. I knew then I had to see this for myself.
‘A Story of Deception’ was a revelation – bold, original conceptual art, carefully conceived, well thought through and brilliantly executed. Alÿs is no lightweight conceptual artist and while I had no prior experience of his work, I was still impressed at the way he chooses to communicate ideas that can deceive those who choose to observe and judge them only on the surface. This is highly intelligent conceptual art with an utter lack of gimmick.
Born in Belgium in 1959, Alÿs trained as an architect before moving to Mexico City, where he still lives today. Much of his work involves “actions” where he effectively documents the city, incorporating socio-economic and political commentary in a way that is at once humorous, sometimes absurd and yet laden with meaning.
The ice block is a good case in point. Titled ‘Paradox of Praxis 1’ and subtitled ‘Sometimes Doing Something Leads to Nothing’, Alÿs pushes and later kicks a block of ice around Mexico City, to the puzzlement of onlookers, until the ice is so small that is can be kicked no longer and is left to melt in the sun. Seemingly absurd on the surface, this work speaks to the difficulty of ordinary Mexicans trying to improve their living conditions in vain. Similarly, ‘Caracoles’ shows a beautifully shot video of boy trying to kick a bottle up a hill, with little success. And I loved ‘Rehearsal 1’ where a driver attempts to drive an old red VW beetle up a dirt hill in a poor area of the city but on each attempt, lets the car roll back down feebly to its starting point. This process is repeated each time, accompanied by the soundtrack of a brass band’s rehearsal, adding to the humour and futility of the entire exercise. Quoting from the booklet that accompanies the exhibition, Alÿs describes this rehearsal as ‘the Latin American scenario in which modernity is always delayed’.
More controversially is ‘Re-enactments 2000’ where Alÿs was filmed walking into a shop in Mexico City, buying a gun, and walking around the city with the gun dangling visibly from his hand until the police arrested him. The following day he re-enacted these actions, following the same path through the city, allegedly having persuaded the police to reconstruct the arrest as it had happened the previous day. (In case you’re curious, it took just over 12 minutes for Alÿs to be arrested.)
One of the most moving pieces for me was ‘The Green Line’ where Alÿs walked along part of the border separating Israel from the Palestinian-occupied areas (the border marking the end of Israel’s war with Jordan in 1948), while dribbling green paint along the route. Onlookers seem either baffled or occasionally intrigued by Alÿs’ paint dribbling but all the while, Alÿs remains unmoved by the attention, keeping to his designated path and walking so casually that the act of dribbling paint behind him seems perfectly natural.
The video footage is accompanied by the voices of commentators describing the context of and reactions to this act and although insightful, I occasionally lost track of their words, as I became so absorbed in the resoluteness of Alÿs’ action. The piece’s subtitle, ‘Sometimes doing something poetic can become political and sometimes doing something political can become poetic’ proved very apt indeed.
Unfortunately I spent so much time with each of the video works that I barely saw ‘Tornado’ all the way through before the gallery closed. I will have to return again to see the rest of this thought-provoking exhibition before it leaves in a few weeks’ time. This is only a sampling of the work on show and it is impossible for me to convey my impressions of all of it here. For Londoners who are open to contemporary art and have yet to see it, I would recommend this show highly.
Photo: video still from ‘Paradox of Praxis 1’ 1997 by Francis Alÿs, from www.francisalys.com.
For more information:
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/francisalys/default.shtm
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