Despite wanting to stay home and eat ice cream all day, my
mum managed to drag me to the Hayward Gallery for their new exhibition: The
Human Factor.
I was reluctant at first, due to the fact that I do not
normally relate well to sculptures that do not resemble what they claim to be.
I guess I think art is more powerful when it really looks like its subject...
but then again, for that I could just go to Madame Tussauds. Another reason
that ice cream seemed more tempting was the fact that the exhibition promised
to be both “unsettling” and “thought-provoking”. Seeing as one of the most publicised images
from the exhibition is a policeman and a large bear, I was not convinced.
So, with a very critical eye, -and part of my mind on my Ben
& Jerry’s at home-, I entered the gallery. Although the first room did not
really capture my interest, I was intrigued by the second collection of pieces.
There was a large cut-out of Lee Harvey Oswald –the man charged with the murder
of President Kennedy- who was shot to death by Jack Ruby, in front of the
world’s press and eyes. The large cut out is Oozewald (1989) by Cady Noland.
Although Oswald was in fact only shot once, Noland punctured eight large holes
in the metal image. The explanation given by the Hayward Gallery, is that the
holes also depict how the cameras were shooting through him too, and every
public eye with them. To finish off the spectacle, Noland gagged her subject
with an American flag. So, this is the first piece that captured my attention,
not only due to its interesting appearance, but also due to the explanation
behind it.
Relating to this topic is the life-like sculpture by
Maurizio Cattelan, which he entitled ‘Now’. This displays the corpse of John F
Kennedy, laid out in his coffin. This would clearly give many Americans the
farewell that they needed. Amongst some grotesquely disfigured sculptures, I
enjoyed observing Cattelan’s work, which looked so much like the former
President, but with such a peaceful look on his face. My favourite thing about
this, however, was (again) not the piece, but the information given with it.
The Hayward states that JFK has bare feet in the piece, as Cattelan simply did
not feel people should wear shoes or socks when they are sleeping. It is an
interesting sentiment, which I think captures the entire piece: Cattelan has
put JFK to a calm sleep, giving him the goodbye that the President never
received. I also like this idea that not every part of an artwork has to make
sense to the beholder, as long as it seems right to the artist.
Another work of Cattelan’s also stuck in my mind. It is in
fact the piece that finally convinced me this exhibition could truly be
“unsettling” and “thought provoking”. Walking into a small room in the gallery,
I instantly felt apprehensive. I am claustrophobic and I suddenly found myself
in an empty room, alone if not for a small boy kneeling on the floor. It took
me a few seconds to realise the boy was a sculpture, but I was still nervous
somehow. Something about the boy’s clothes made me instantly think ‘Holocaust’,
and –as a Jew myself- a fierce desire to protect him crept in with my general
feeling of anxiousness. I was sure that I would find a crying boy, with a huge
yellow star on his lapel, and some kind of horrible back-story. Starting forwards
a few more paces, I slowly began to make out the shape and detail of the head.
And then... could it be... is it... It is. This is no kneeling boy. This is
Adolf Hitler. There is a plaque on the wall, with some kind of explanation, but
I don’t think Cattelan’s ‘Him’ needs any explanation. It is simply powerful,
and yes: “unsettling” and “thought provoking”.
Moving on to a very different kind of sculpture, this is ‘Monika
and Pawel’, by Pawel Althamer. This depicts the artist and his first wife,
fully immersed in operating their electrical gadgets. Their bodies are made
with animal intestines and straw, which is instantly both repulsive and
incredibly intriguing. Of course, over time this couple will slowly decay, and
their gadgets –which they were so involved with- have already stopped working.
I think this is such an interesting concept, and so very brave of Althamer to
have done it using Monika and himself as the subjects. I don’t think I could
stand to see my own work degrade and crumble away, let alone one that resembles
me. I am glad that Althamer could though, as this is such a powerful comment on
life, and modern obsessions with technology.
However, not every piece in the Hayward gallery appealed to
me as much as the ones I have mentioned. This is always going to happen in
every exhibition, but these next two pieces went as far as to really frustrate
me: they are so close to being amazing pieces, but in my eyes there are fundamental
problems with them. Throughout the gallery, there are signs warning us that
there are live bees in one of the pieces. I was intrigued and excited to
discover how they would be incorporated into an artwork. In my mind’s eye, I
was seeing huge installations covered with bees, paired with an interesting
explanation. So, I was in fact disappointed walking out onto a balcony to be
met with Pierre Huyghe’s Untitled. It is simply a reclining woman with a
beehive on her head. Creative, yes, but creative enough?... well, no. Perhaps
the main problem was the anticlimax of being warned about the bees throughout the
visit, only to see a very small beehive with no real significance.
My second bone that needs picking, is with Paul McCarthy’s
Life Cast displaying a naked woman in three different positions. I was immediately
angered by the sight of these sculptures. The female subject is beautiful,
petite, and completely hairless below her eyelashes. I found myself wondering
about the
point of this sculpture. There is nothing unusual about seeing
this depiction of women. To see this kind of woman, anyone can open up a men’s magazine,
and I would not call that art. The thing is that the technique used on these
figures is amazing at creating such resemblance to living people. McCarthy has
taken care to include the veins on the woman’s legs, which instantly adds
another element of life. So, clearly, McCarthy is interested in detail, but
there is little else to add to this woman: she has smooth skin all over her
entire body. I was instantly thinking how much more powerful the pieces would
have been if they were middle-aged, larger women, with imperfections that are
completely normal, much like McCarthy’s ‘Dreaming’, which is a cast of himself.
This piece- which was not part of The Human Factor- displays a middle aged man,
covered in hair. He does not have a perfect body, and that just makes the artwork
that much more interesting. So, perhaps I am angry that the Hayward picked
three naked women over a far more intriguing piece.
So, moving back to artworks that did
not miss the
mark: I keep thinking about Ryan Gander’s little bronze pieces. With insanely
long names, these tiny ballerinas have abandoned their plinths elsewhere in the
gallery, to live their own lives. One presses her face to a window, and the
other hides behind her stand to have a cigarette break. As there was no rope
around the piece, I could stand really close to the ballerina whose face was against
the window. I love the curiosity, youth and freedom displayed there. Even
though the girl is just as stationary as the other sculptures, it made me think
of movement and living life. The ballerina taking a drag from a cigarette has
less youth in her appearance, and more tiredness. She has spent her life being
stared at, and just wishes to have some privacy. I almost felt guilty for
finding her hiding place behind her plinth. These pieces made me think about
another element of galleries, and sculptures, which is a very powerful thing
for me.
A third Gander piece also portrayed innocence, youth and
freedom. He modeled ‘Tell My Mother Not
To Worry’ on his child pretending to be a ghost, using a bed sheet. It does not
really need any more explanation than that, but I found myself observing it for
longer than I thought I would. The movement created in the ‘sheet’ really does
make you feel you can lift it up and find a laughing toddler underneath.
The final artist that also made me think about another
element to sculptures was Martin Honert, who creates sculptures that resemble
photographs. When I initially saw ‘Hamburger Bahnhof’, I began to walk away. It
had a weird appearance, that I didn’t like at first. It was not until my audio
guide mentioned it had been based on a photograph that it all made sense. That
was the ‘weird’ thing about the model. It really does look like it has walked
out of an old photograph. Honert painstakingly recreated the dappled effect
people have in old photos, and the different colours caused by light
intensities. This first one is based on Honert’s old school teacher, whilst the
second is of Honert as a child. When I took off my glasses, I could almost
believe these sculptures were 2D. They are a really interesting and creative
way of manipulating photographs and sculptures, that I had never thought of before, and I
would love to see more of his work.
So, these few pieces surprised me, being both “thought-provoking”
and “unsettling”. Definitely worth giving up an ice cream for!
Until next time,
H x
