Sunday, 9 October 2011

Pipilotti Rist- Hayward Gallery


The Hayward really hit the jackpot with this exhibition Eyeball Massage by Pipilotti Rist. Work varies from the mid 80s until the present, and it works with video and the way we experience it. Moving it from the screen or basic projection into and onto new fields and plains. By changing the ‘standard’ ways of viewing by putting projections in shells or making the viewer lie on the floor on cushions made from jumpers and trousers, we are disrupting the usual rituals of a gallery visit. The human body becomes a recurring theme, for example the chandelier, Massachusettes Chandelier, made from underwear, looks to celebrate the body by using garments that would usually cover what is considered the most ‘sacred’ parts of the body, the parts which site “our entrance into the world, the centre of sexual pleasure and the location of the exits for the body’s garbage”
A personal favourite of mine had to be the piece Suburb Brain, where by videos were integrated to a small suburban house. The placement of the videos onto the architecture of the bungalow work well for me, with videos showing us the inside of the house, what was really going on, commenting on how what we see and what we perceive is often at conflict with each other.  This again works to comment on the nature of suburban life, a perfect little world often at odds with itself. The show continues until 8th Janurary 2012 so go and check it out.



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