Strange Days: Memories of the Future
The Store X, 180 The Strand, WC2R 1EA
2 OCTOBER - 9 DECEMBER
Free
This will be the third year running that I have visited 180 The Strand's winter exhibition. Run by The Store X and the New Museum, in collaboration with The Vinyl Factory, "Strange Days: Memories of the Future" brings together an eclectic and fresh mix of video makers, who radicalise the conventional, and challenge the mundane to present new visions of art and life. This years artists have all exhibited at the New Museum in the last ten years, and many of the artists featured I was familiar with myself.
The booklet which accompanied the exhibition claims that it tries to "emphasise a fractured sense of time", where an "uncanny sense of estrangement permeates the works on view". I must admit, that I didn't really follow any sort of connection between the works, let alone any common similarities, as they were all so completely bizarre I left feeling utterly baffled and slightly concerned that I was missing the point more than anything else. The majority of the works displayed multiple and sometimes contradictory messages about subjects such a life, death, sexuality, none of which are easy to read or understand, and I find it difficult to believe that there are people out there who will simply just 'get' these pieces.
After seeing Kahlil Joseph's dual-screen film installation m.A.A.d two years ago at The Infinite Mix, I had high hopes for his work featured here Fly Paper. The film opens with us following a man who cannot forget: subsequently we join him in what I can only presume is a recounting of his life. What unfolds is a series of repetitive imagery of this man alone in a deserted flat, followed by some nondescript sections of life in Harlem. The message does not come through, and the booklet doesn't give any further clarity on the meaning of the work either - simply claiming it "probes the ways in which the literary imagination parallels that of film and how the ordinary act of storytelling shapes larger histories and enduring myths". Kahlil's previous work, m.A.A.d, had been an explosion of vibrant colours, action, music and light - Fly Paper was merely a washed out, null video which I left halfway through out of boredom.
There were a couple of redeeming videos in the exhibition, such as John Akomfrah's Vertigo Sea, an artist I was familiar with after seeing his similar three-screen film Purple, shown at the Barbican in December last year. Whilst these film was almost an hour long, it was towards the end of the exhibition, which I had already been at for almost two hours, so I only stayed for 10 minutes. These 10 minutes, however, was by far the most rewarding and redeeming time I spent here. Vertigo Sea is a three-screen video installation about our Ocean's, and the cruelty man give the inhabitants of the big blue. In the time I was there I saw whale hunting and slaughter imagery, contrasted with the beautiful yet devastating images of oil rigs and spillages in the ocean: making ominous and frightening patterns for miles upon miles. The sheer aesthetic appeal of Akomfrah's work makes it worth seeing alone, however, all of his work contains a strong and meaningful message: which is both striking and not impossible to understand.
Another work which stood out was Jungle of Desire by Hong Kong based Wong Ping. In this 6 minute animation, Ping's central character tells a story of an impotent husband who allows his wife to start prostituting from the home. What results from this is a comical and colourful exploration of a mans desires, ranging from the sexual to the demonic. We see the wife being exploited by a policeman, who visits regularly and does not pay: this man enrages the impotent husband so much that he has visions of the policeman's fart providing the means to blow up a whole cabin, resulting in his death. The movements from thought to thought are random and bizarre, but highly entertaining and will have you giggling like children at the constant mentioning of naughty words or taboo subjects. Ping, however, is not just trying to be witty here, but also resonate with audience members and try and elicit a shred of sympathy from them. Small mentions of minor details, such as the difference in colouring of the wife's nipples, due to customers only being able to suck on the left one, make this crazy story seem slightly more fragile and real.
Overall, The Vinyl Factory succeed in putting on a varied, original and best of all, free exhibition for the third year running. There are some redeeming as well as interesting works featured here, but I must admit for the most part I was left cold and rather frustrated. Many of the works are pretentious and impossible to understand, which leaves viewers like me cold, and others desperately searching for a meaning to be accepted into this ludicrous world. Go for Ping's Jungle of Desire, stay for Akomfrah's Vertigo Sea, and don't waste your time trying to connect with or enjoy the others.
OVERALL RATING: **
http://www.strangedays-memoriesofthefuture.com/
