Shitty Disco
Tala Mandani
Pilar Corrias
5 OCTOBER - 11 NOVEMBER 2016
Free
Housed in Pilar Corrias gallery, just off Oxford Street, Shitty Disco was certainly not an exhibition to be forgotten.
Upon entering the empty gallery we were confronted with different paintings holding one common feature: Poo. There was poo on spoons, poo smeared across canvases, poo projected from people's bums onto a screen. There also featured a lot of phallic imagery (as you will see in my extremely mature photo below). Due to all the poo and penises involved in the exhibition it became clear that Mandani had one motive in mind: to shock.
When an artist does something in order to shock I feel that this can go one of two ways, it can either be a glorious success, such as some of the early abstract expressionists, defying the previous 'laws' of art and breaking the mould to release pure creativity. Alternatively, the shock factor can leave one simply looking around the room for an explanation... and asking themselves 'what the fuck?', much like the thought I had when seeing a Tracey Emin used tampon for the first time, photographed and entitled 'The History of Painting, Part 1'..... WHAT?!
Unlike Emin, Mandani I believe succeeds in shocking her audience positively. This is not the same feeling of admiration I have for many of the expressionists but instead an amusing and comic shock factor. If Mandani's aim is to take the piss through her witty paintings then yes, she succeeds. However, if Mandani is aiming to portray some kind of deep and meaningful message through... well... shit... then unfortunately this has been lost on me.
Whatever your take on her work, it is undeniable that Mandani's works both entertained me and provide me with a few chuckles along the way. If one views Mandani's works with a light heart and tries not to take themselves or the works too seriously then this exhibition will be far from a party pooper.
OVERALL RATING: **
http://www.pilarcorrias.com/exhibitions/tala-madani/
