Nathaniel Mellors
March 23, 2009
Monday I spent 4 hours at Tate Britain. I did not expect to be so thoroughly engaged. The Tate Triennial, Altermodern, is curated by the founding director of the Palais de Tokyo (the Musee d’Art Moderne) in Paris. He chose 28 artists to fulfill his thesis on “what’s next” after the “closure” of Post-Modernism in the new global age. What a bunch of drivel from an art’s professional demonstrating active construction of new territory (read: creating a new act in his job description so as to stay employed through obfuscation).
Of the 28 artists only one distinguished themselves (with Nathaniel Mellors being came-close-but-shot-himself-in-the-foot). The vast majority fulfill a too common tendency to seek the spotlight rather than putting in the time to develop the craft of their profession. Most of these artist think that they can give natural science, sociology; literature new meaning. They have something to offer that professionals in these disciplines have overlooked? It is like a kid burning an ant with a magnifying glass - thinking he has discovered a new energy technology.
Mellors has installed a multi-platform “story” development. The sculpture shown above is quite creative as it an animatronic sculpture (moving eyes, jaws, heads) that speaks the language of coprophilic cannibals. Oh boy! The only reason to take that spin is to be sure somebody takes notice - the John Wayne Gaycy of the art world.
The successful artist is Peter Coffin who selected and hung conventionally, seven works (painting and sculpture from the Tate collection) in a dark room and then put projectors to work creating a geometric light show that tightly focused its projection upon the works in a visual syncopation accompanied by a soundtrack. I have never seen such extravagantly successful use of new media. Again, I wish I could translate my experience to words and visual record.
