Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2012

27 November 2012 – 13 January 2013

Institute of Contemporary Art

http://www.newcontemporaries.org.uk

I want to preface my thoughts about the New Contemporaries exhibition by the following question:

What happens in an art system where the idea is privileged, and becomes central to the work of art?

Of course this relates to the history of conceptual art, and its legacy within contemporary art today. But it’s a necessary discussion to have when I notice that the majority of the work physically in front of me at the exhibition seems to be lacking in physical presence, or affective content. I didn’t really ‘feel’ much about most of the work, and I’m trying to figure out what this might mean, and what it says about the values of contemporary art today.

Focusing on the idea has often been portrayed as ‘freeing’ the artwork and the individual from the perceived burden of subjectivity. But at the same time it’s hard not to get the idea that ideas can constrain.  I see foregrounding the conceptual and the ideological as having more to do with ignoring and denying, rather than being free of, the physical world of the body, of time and of culture.

Ideas have a natural way of arriving fully formed and with their own boundaries. They are concrete. And this is why we love them - for their strength. They possess a stability that is so firm that one can build whole societies from their foundations. They can be written about, clearly expressed though words, are definable, and thus eminently pleasing in a fully-imagined, spherical kind of way.

So what does it mean if art should rely on this? Perhaps what you get is a lot of rather controlled art, where the physical object shows no weakness, no wavering in trying to understand itself, and absolute confidence that it has ‘thought of everything’. An idea is impenetrable, and there is really only one way of thinking an idea, because it is already a thought, and actually doesn’t provide much food for thought because the thought has already been thought.  This is exhausting, and I dare say a little boring. 

I want uncertainty. I want complexity and questioning. I want the inability to put something into categories, or to box it in. I want un-containability and refusals to give straight answers. And opposite to this is ideology, with its neatly wrapped-up answers and inevitable simplification that actually serves to imprison mental creativity.

Let me return to what I really wanted to say about the show. Quite simply, I really enjoyed the video art at New Contemporaries this year.

Salome Ghazanfari you make me salivate over silk boxer shorts!

Still from 

Salome Ghazanfari's Boxer (Young Marble Giants) (2011) video, 7 min 20 sec

Still from Boxer (Young Marble Giants)

Evariste Maiga you told me through your body and your movement about your past and your present!

Still from Evariste Maiga's 

Improvisation, pain and joy (2012) HD video, stereo sound, 6 min 15 sec

 Evariste Maiga's video on display

Tony Law you undermined the innocence of beauty, where the endless strolling and stroking of railings by these pretty girls was exposed as way for them to luxuriate in their own sadness and inconsolable neediness.

Still from Tony Law's  Strolling (2012) single-channel video, 3 min 24 sec (looped)    

Simon Senn you somehow managed to orchestrate what could be described as a reality show(!) in Soweto, South Africa, complete with prize money, casting auditions and passionate rehearsals for the final performance.

Still from Simon Senn's Meadowlands Zone 1 (2010) HD video, 12 min

Simon Senn's video on display

Whenever there are moving images there is always a fluidity which resists control. Although, of course the artists may have spent copious amounts of time editing, they inevitably have had to accept what the camera has given them. Maybe they liked the expression on the face, but the background was not exactly perfect. Maybe the camera jiggled, but they were on location at a live event, and nothing could be done about it. They had to accept it, and they were, I’m sure of it, unable to control quite how everything went.

And that, that leaves me mesmerised. I watch, trying to make sense of everything I see, my logical facilities trying to classify and assign patterns – which of course it can never quite do as the images, frame by frame, keep slipping away into time.

It’s not that you can’t do this with other art, with painting, with sculpture or installation, it's just that it doesn’t seem to be too popular here at New Contemporaries.

Everything is very composed, very harmonious, and as a result, leaning towards looking like an aestheticized design-magazine worthy apartment. Everything matches. Is this good curating, or savvy art marketing?

In the lower space, there are silk curtains fluttering against the breeze. There are inoffensive (and subtly-coloured) paintings adorning the walls, mostly abstract though, no troublesome subject matter. In fact, when you start thinking along these lines it becomes scary when you realize that there is also a minimal table with expressive, roughly hewn vases on it opposite a kitschy ceramic figurine of a squirrel.

Perhaps it’s the fault of the selectors, but these seem very cautious choices. And it’s leaving me with the impression that this year’s graduates are a profoundly unambitious bunch that just want to provide tasteful living-room friendly art work.

But there are things happening in the world right now! Why don’t I see any of it here? Like real-life cuts, and strangulation to artistic expression through large-scale assaults on the affordability and value of a liberal arts education. I want artists to challenge and provoke, and occasionally leave the world of concepts for the messiness of life. We’re all just too polite.

It was at this point that I decided to ask for the price list. You’ll be happy to know it’s all quite affordable and, even for a recession year, I suspect business will be good.