Art show review

Chalkie Cloonan March 2019.

I have chosen to write about Christian Marclays “The Clock” at the Tate Modern and Conrad Shawcross’s “After the explosion, Before the Collapse” at Victoria Miro Mayfair. I visited both in October 2018. At first I thought these were very different exhibitions but my emotional response to both was too similar to be a coincidence and I wondered what the connection was and if as a painter it was relevant to my practice.

When I left each of exhibitions I found myself conscious of time and it’s direct relationship to myself. I was a little worried at first by little flash backs of conciseness. I noticed the light becoming dusk, people eating cake, drinking tea while their small children tucked in to pasta in the tate gallery restaurant. I noticed people hurrying , jostling impatiently on the tube while on their way home. I kept clocking the time and it’s connection to our routines – the way we have attached time to our routines and by having done that the time orders our lives.

I was unnaturally focused and kept being transported back to the art works. It was as if I had been possessed, some sort of magic was at play. I was curious, how could both these works have imprinted on me in this way?

I wondered if anyone else had had the same reaction and began to read the reviews and watched the artists interviews which were both interesting and enjoyable, a great new way, thanks to the internet to find out about someone’s work. There a were a lot of thumbs up for Marclays “The Clock” but I questioned why not everyone bothered to mention Shawcrosss show.

The first piece was a film playing in a large draped, dark, soft room in a large modern public art gallery where you were asked to sit and lounge on comfy sofas. This was not an accidental setting it was a very carefully considered setting by its creator Christian Marclay. “The Clock”, which had taken three years to make according to the white cube info. where it was first shown in 2010, is a film made up of clips from many films both modern and old. It charts the hours minutes and seconds that pass in 24 hours, using film clips that are in real time. You look at your watch you look at the screen they both say 2.30; a wow moment. I’m not sure I could take 24 hours of the ”The Clock”, watching in the dark, although its fun seeing your favorite films spliced together telling a funny muddled up story. Time passes. You leave the exhibition and see a watch and remember the film. A rather stressful experience for some, considering the world we live in with all its dates and times to adhere to, and keep up with. None the less I enjoyed the experience. And in 2018 it still resonated. It is I’m assured by Freeze magazine a masterpiece and has become one of the most popular art pieces of all time. Marclay did a similar piece depicting phones and has often worked with sound wanting to bring what he describes as music in to museums. He has worked closely with other sound artists like Laurie Anderson in New York’s post punk melee. Personally I prefer this piece and agree it has some sort of magic that raises it above his other work- which if I’m honest about I find disturbing and unpleasant to view or be involved in. I don’t just prefer “The clock” I’m fascinated and enjoyed it. If I had realised who had made this when I was at theTate I wouldn’t have gone in, I’m pleased I did, I found treasure.

In contrast the other exhibition was a traditional exhibition of tall hard metal tessellated sculptures and a few black and white photos in a small traditional gallery in Mayfair

Conrad Shawcross’s “After the explosion, Before the Collapse” stands still and tall placed on the ground, metallic, like serine monoliths. His grainy black and white photographic stills hangs on the wall at the back of the gallery. You have to move around, there is no seating. Shawcross says this is what he wants and that static art can have more movement than kinetic art but the audience needs to participate and move around to experience it.

He speaks from a stance of hard earned knowledge. Much mathematical and physical investigation and exploration has gone into his practice. He has produced a long list of pieces exploring time, our connection and the way we experience his work. He rehashes his work each time to produce more effects using our movement and light as the instigator that drives the effect.

One piece twists rope imitating time linear qualities with its many stands weaving in and out, In another he has created a “moire” effect by carefully producing many layers of metal perforated and teaseled precisely so that when light or your position changes it seems to move. In this piece “After the explosion, Before the Collapse” it is a moment frozen in time when everything is coming apart, evenly controlled before its collapse in a muddle. Here it doesn’t fall into a muddle it is frozen, beautiful, suspended, it is very physical, rather like in the films where time is stopped magically. You are in control, or you think you are; you move around, the sun shines into the gallery, the tessellated shapes of Shawcross’s work throw shadows and reflect light, moving. It is alive. You leave the gallery and see the sunlight falling through the trees, you are immediately reminded of Shawcross creations.

This is art work that I could live with, it’s symbiotic nature, lifts and engages all at once, it does not discombobulate like Maclay work which carries you along dragging you in to its world.

In Comparing and researching these two exhibitions I realised practically although ”The Clock” is moving it is still a moment in time trapped in a 24 hour loop. ”After the explosion, Before the Collapse”, Is a moment frozen in time but it changes and interacts moving beyond its moment. Both works are tied into to our experience of relativity, physics and memory. The magic happens every time we are reminded and remember. Both works do this in startlingly different ways, both beautifully done, both very pure, both ephemeral, sublime in their treatment of time and both very much related. Coming to this conclusion makes me feel that the way they work should indeed affect my practices as a painter although they work in different disciplines they both draw on their audiences experience of time and the way it affects us and that interests me.

I can understand why Marclays piece is held in higher estimation by some, he has been working much longer than Shawcross his ideas have distilled and produced a piece that has engaged a generation. Shawcross is, although climbing fast into view, still hacking though his practice and many of his pieces repeat his interests and retrace other pieces and therefore the reviewer cannot find anything new to say. As this was the first time I had seen his work, knowingly, I didn’t have that problem.

References :

Christian Marclay : The Clock Tate Modern Exhibition 14 September 2018-20h January 2019

https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/christian-marclay-cloc

Christian Marclay interview https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ_wKD6XQTM

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=the+clock&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari

https://frieze.com/article/about-time-christian-marclays-clock-receives-its-tate-modern-premiere