a multi-sensory minimal experience

Cerith Wyn Evans: ''Everyone's gone to the movies, now we're alone at last...''

White Cube Gallery (Mason's Yard)

till 22.05.2010

S=U=P=E=R=S=T=R=U=C=T=U=R=E ('Trace me back to some loud, shallow, chill, underlying motive’s overspill…')

The first thing that comes to my eye while I saw the exhibit above and learnt about this show from the Evening Standard (review link in Further Reading section below) was Pet Shop Boy's music video for their single Minimal. The second thought is why the title - ''Everyone's gone to the movies, now we're alone at last...''. Then from the official press release, I realised its title is from a song by Steely Dan, "Everyone's gone to the movies" in 1975. That's a reincarnation 35 years later, um...

The review from Evening Standard rated it 4 stars out of 5. So I have put the show in my to-do list before I forget about it totally and miss it at the end. And I'm glad that I have gone see it myself - it is a well-presented, powerful show with site-specific works that you would remember both the gallery and the artist altogether after your visit.

When you approach the gallery, there's a line of text made by neon tube next to the stairs -

Subtitle (2010)

But it is not meant to be viewed from this direction. Instead, it is to be viewed from within through the reflection via the glass -

Subtitle (2010)

The line of text move with your frame of view as you walk, and because of the frame of the gallery glazing it does look like a line of subtitle in the big screen with the view outside becoming the movie itself. The text of this piece also develops a remote link of helplessness to the title of the show - ''Everyone's gone to the movies, now we're alone at last...''

In the main exhibition space on ground level hung the key piece of the show: C=O=N=S=T=E=L=L=A=T=I=O=N (I call your image to mind). This is a fascinating collaboration of acoustic art and science. With a series of hanging mirror discs resembling the Calder's mobiles, strategically positioned loudspeakers and selected soundtracks, a spectacle is created with an atmosphere of sterile lab setting (helped by the white and silver palette). You constantly see yourself in the mirrors but your ears are receiving sound waves reflecting from the walls & mirrors projecting another dimension of flux on top of the visual illusion. It forms a multi-sensory maze which you have to be present inside the space in order to feel the work itself.

At the basement, there is a series of framed prints playing with the concept of positives and negatives with slots cutted on printed page of a poem. But another main piece is forcing you to accept its existence next door - because of the heat it generates and radiates across the space from the moment you reach the bottom of the staircase leading down from the ground level.

S=U=P=E=R=S=T=R=U=C=T=U=R=E ('Trace me back to some loud, shallow, chill, underlying motive’s overspill…') - video link

The gallery's press release cites this piece has referenced the former electricity sub-station which once stood on the site of the gallery. Whether that is clear or just a mere marketing gimmick phrase should be decided by the audience. I do think that it is relevant, with the gradual 'on-and-off' of the filaments in the "light columns" mimicing the movement of machinery in routine operations. The alignment of these 'light columns' are inspired by the order of stones in japanese zen gardens and stars in the galaxy, and gives a sense of serene beauty to the cubic space.

This is the first time I came across Cerith's works. I found a sense of connectivity of his works with another artist White Cube represents - Kris Martin. While 'time' is very much an explicit essence in Kris's works and he tries to convey the notion of time to the audience through his works; Cerith's works evoke the audience to acknowledge hidden dimensions in space with his operation in time. You couldn't determine the moment which sound emits from the speakers in C=O=N=S=T=E=L=L=A=T=I=O=N (I call your image to mind), it only reaches you after reflections from the wall and the mobile discs. That distortion in reception suggests an added dimension in space created by the artist to the original space as perceived by the audience. And in S=U=P=E=R=S=T=R=U=C=T=U=R=E ('Trace me back to some loud, shallow, chill, underlying motive’s overspill…'), the proliferation of heat radiating out from the works did cause me to think of the strong invisible electro-magnetic fields present in electricity sub-station, although that is not consciously realised by people in most cases. In that aspect, it has materialised something virtual in my eyes.

And that, has made the show worth visiting.

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Independent London art tweets & bites since 2009

a multi-sensory minimal experience