Artist as Celeb:14 minutes with Marina Abramovic

I know the insinuation of the title is that I maybe spoke with Marina Abramovic, but what happened was that I spent 14-ish minutes in the same general area as her.

I went to the Marina Abramoic show, 512 Hours, at the Serpentine Gallery. Marina is basically the big art-star/art-celeb right now &  I found myself sucked into her fame vortex because I waited in line for 40 minutes to see the show. I wanted to see what all the hoopla was about.

Admittedly, I don’t know her work besides the famous MOMA peformance, The Artist Is Here, and also her video with Jay-Z (read my commentary in the July 13 archive ).

When you walk into the gallery you are asked to put away sunglasses & mobile phones (anything distracting) in a locker provided. No talking.

The first room is a locker room. I put my stuff away and didn’t know what to do next. People were sitting on the benches. I thought we were going to be led into the other rooms in groups (I was let in as part of a group). Then I noticed there was a lady whispering to someone. It was Marina herself and she looks just like the picture you see of her as you’re standing in line for 40 minutes. I sat down thinking maybe she’ll come over and whisper something to me.  I thought we could talk about art & life! After a few minutes I realized everyone was probably thinking this same thing. It was like once when I was shopping at Barneys in Beverly Hills and I saw Victoria Beckham a few feet from me. I wanted her to look over and smile at me or say something frivolous about my cute outfit- but she just walked away. Attention from a celeb would be so validating in a totally fucked up way. I hated that feeling, so I walked into the next room.

In the rest of the gallery you need to wear noise canceling headphones. I walk into the center room with my noise canceling headphones and it was a pretty cool experience. People were sitting or walking around and there was no noise. It felt like a scene in an artsy film ala Spike Jones-ish. In the center of the room were small square platforms and people were gathering in a circle with their eyes closed. Is this a meditation room? Do they meditate at home or are they only doing this so they can be filmed by Marina (there’s info as you enter that alerts you to the filming in process). I sat down and watched people – I’m a people watcher. These gallery goers were partaking in some un-discussed ritual-ish, contemplative-ish performance. Is this was Marina wanted? It felt really contrived…very, “Let me stand in meditation to the art gods”. Forced. Artsy. Maybe I’m too jaded.

There are 2 rooms off to each side. I walked into the room on the left. It was filled with cots and people were napping. Ok, that’s nice. Resourceful for those tired tourists walking all day. Then I walked to the room on the right – I passed Marina talking to a young girl holding her hand. Is Marina just super nice and holds your hand? Not if she’s British (she’s not). I kinda still wanted to have her come talk to me and hold my hand so I could have a story to tell my art school friends, like when Robert Rauchenberg drunkenly flirted with me.

The second side room was filled with school desks. On the desk was a pile of lentils and rice next to a piece of paper and pencil. The gallery attendant apparently had permission to talk and told me that I’m supposed to separate the rice & lentils and count how many are in each. What bitch? Do I get a free t-shirt if I do it? I sat there for a moment and realized everyone was doing it. Stupid. I felt like I was in an undergrad performance project circa 1994. She lost me in this room.

I was done. As I walked out I saw this cute girl that had on a really cool black and white stripped skirt…very chic, especially because she had on an old yellow tank with it. It totally clashed and I loved that, so I mouthed the words “cute skirt” and I waved my hands over me like I had a skirt on too. That was the most exciting part of the show for me because the girl looked at me like “Shh! Why is this gay guy talking to me about my skirt?”. It was my mini rebellious action to this sterile-robotic environment.

Overall I liked the idea of the show. Was it about the a Universal consciousness? or maybe how we we need stillness in this crazy world? or maybe how stupid our society is for counting rice grains and lentil beans in hopes of being in the video that is being filmed? I’m totally reaching. Whatever it is it came out really contrived, but she’s famous and I totally caught her looking over at me once – maybe it will be a moment in her film; I was validated. 

Rosemary Trockel at the Serpentine…what?

I have admired the work of Rosemary Trockel for many years so I was excited to see her show at the Serpentine Gallery. I really enjoy her approach to feminist ideas.  Rosemary Trockel-A Cosmos felt lacking, probably because the audience at the Serpentine seems to be either the wealthy collector looking for a name, or the ignorant tourist walking through the park. I also thought it failed in its curatorial aspects through the needless addition of other artists or the lack of taking that idea to the right level.  It was a few of her strong pieces & then some other filler work. The show incorporated a few other artists work alongside Trockel’s and I’m still perplexed as to why..or who thought it would work, and also, was this a mini retrospective because the work spanned a few years?

Trockel’s work is juxtaposed with various pieces from “self taught” artists that “provide models of dedication to their chosen field that, for Trockel, are exemplary and inspiring”.”Many of the objects and artworks, selected by Trockel in dialogue with curator Lynne Cooke, produce a context for the artist’s work within other fields of inquiry, such as the natural sciences and natural history.” All these quotes can be found in the Serpentine Gallery write up. These other artists & the natural museum-esque display seems to be an attempt to further play on Trockel’s tension of art & craft. I think the art/craft dialogue is already accepted as part of Trockel’s oeuvre. If the curator wanted to use this display/juxtapositioning as a key idea in the show they should have taken a page out of Damian Hirst’s book – oh lord, I can’t believe I’m referencing him…but he is a master of presentation for his audience. The curator could also have better used the idea of incorporating the environment like for instance Jason Rhoades (maybe and extreme example) who made experiencing the whole room/gallery part of the art with his clustered mishmash of items. I just felt like the show was incohesive & this made the work look random & dated.

Maybe I just don’t understand. In reading the other reviews of the show I found one that I can relate to from Waldemar Januszczak at The Times. He writes: “A Cosmos is so uncommunicative, so inconsequential, so horrible, that no words of mine can do it justice“. Meow! He does suggest going to see for yourself…& I did, & I agree, but I much rather have a bad reaction to a show than none at all. Touche Rosemary.