A white vulture, three tons of hay, and a young plaid-clad boy perched on a perilous ledge are just some of the narrative clues you'll stumble upon at Elmgreen and Dragset's latest exhibition titled Harvest at London's Victoria Miro Gallery. The Scandinavian duo have previously planted a fully stocked (but never open for business) Prada store in the middle of a desert somewhere near Marfa, Texas and put a bronze boy on a rocking horse in Trafalgar Square. Yet their latest feat enlightens contemporary audiences in an entirely new and especially immersive way.
On opening night last week, I entered the gallery housing the artists' body of work called The Named Series. The group of paintings all consist of white walls extracted from the world's most prestigious art and cultural institutions (from The Hayward Gallery to New York’s Guggenheim) by professional conservators, each framed and bearing the name of its former home. A quick-fire glance might simply reveal a white-walled room displaying yet more (internationally imported) white walls, but closer inspection reveals subtle differences such as texture, shades of color, and even paint quality. By honing focus on the museum wall as an art object, the artists question whether we, as art-gazers, view the same piece of art differently in different contexts.
A pungent trace of country air led us upstairs where a farmyard fairy tale unfolded as I attempted to wade through three tons of hay. On view are abstract paintings derived from the wooden beams of traditional German barns, and a timber wall-frame that reads KUNST, revealing a direct inspiration from rural iconography. The rustic interior created by the artists is simply a setting for our own stories to animate, as carefully placed characters––a lonely scarecrow, an imposing vulture, a bronze hay bale and a sculpture of a young farm boy––invite and encourage interaction. The artists' multi-layered narratives present the harvest as a basic agricultural process that can be readily applied to their own artistic practice of growing and cultivating a personal and collective cultural identity. And when presented as an exhibition, the result is hilarious, beautiful, unsettling, and evocative all at once.
Harvest is on view at Victoria Miro through November 10th.
VICTORIA MIRO
16 Wharf Road
London N1 7RW
MAP
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Courtesy of the Artists and Victoria Miro Gallery London © Elmgreen & Dragset
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On opening night last week, I entered the gallery housing the artists' body of work called The Named Series. The group of paintings all consist of white walls extracted from the world's most prestigious art and cultural institutions (from The Hayward Gallery to New York’s Guggenheim) by professional conservators, each framed and bearing the name of its former home. A quick-fire glance might simply reveal a white-walled room displaying yet more (internationally imported) white walls, but closer inspection reveals subtle differences such as texture, shades of color, and even paint quality. By honing focus on the museum wall as an art object, the artists question whether we, as art-gazers, view the same piece of art differently in different contexts.
A pungent trace of country air led us upstairs where a farmyard fairy tale unfolded as I attempted to wade through three tons of hay. On view are abstract paintings derived from the wooden beams of traditional German barns, and a timber wall-frame that reads KUNST, revealing a direct inspiration from rural iconography. The rustic interior created by the artists is simply a setting for our own stories to animate, as carefully placed characters––a lonely scarecrow, an imposing vulture, a bronze hay bale and a sculpture of a young farm boy––invite and encourage interaction. The artists' multi-layered narratives present the harvest as a basic agricultural process that can be readily applied to their own artistic practice of growing and cultivating a personal and collective cultural identity. And when presented as an exhibition, the result is hilarious, beautiful, unsettling, and evocative all at once.
Harvest is on view at Victoria Miro through November 10th.
VICTORIA MIRO
16 Wharf Road
London N1 7RW
MAP
Courtesy of the Artists and Victoria Miro Gallery London © Elmgreen & Dragset
