Friday 27 March 2009

Haunch of Venison, Big Game and Small

Thomas Joshua Cooper

Jonas Burgert

Adrian Ghenie

Jamie Shovlin

Uwe Wittwer

With Sotheby's Haunch of Venison gallery about to end its first year in it's Burlington Gardens space, now would be a good time to assess their exhibition turnover of this last twelve months.
The space opened with the 'Mythologies' exhibition which as a group show, was as much about the names on view as their works. Bill Viola and Ilya and Emilia Kabakov were the bigger names whose work seemed suitable for the exhibitions study into the space's past, tackling the historical, anthropological and archeological museum space. It aimed to pose questions about the nature of display and agenda behind the politics of institutional displays of the cultural history of mankind. Of the smaller artists on show within the space, Jamie Shovlin's 'Family Album' was one of the more considered, subtle and effective pieces of the exhibition. His ongoing concerns with the border between reality and idealism was well evoked through his subtle renderings of simple symbols of modern day icons juxtaposed with warm images of household child ephemera. A more thorough analysis of Shovlin's work could be examined with a semiotic approach to his use of imagery. Although the space and this show came under criticism early on, a lot of which I do agree with, such as the over use of taxidermy which has hit a trend at the moment. The show overall may not have been a greatly ambitious one, with a lot of flat muted work on walls and no dynamic interventions into the space, as if the artists and curators are too afraid to touch the ornate neo-classical decor, but a lot can be said for the subtly of what was on view, works of different artists did share some interesting dialogue although usually across different areas of the labyrinthine space. However I don't the the distance physically, effected the dialogue between work. The work of Nicolas Hlobo sparring with Kiki Smith, or the work of Jitish Kallat along with Hew Locke. Some interesting links could be made.
Other exhibitions shown could all be blamed of the same problems. None of the exhibitions did anything to reinvent or interact with the space. None of the layouts of the floors have been changed. As it is, it does seen to get rather dry and dull. Little more is done than the museum past that it shares. Lots work deals with minimal patternation, and even more of the work deals in black and white imagery, be that photography, drawing, painting and wall based installation.
However saying that the far rooms of the top floor have shown some rather painting from some established but unknown names. Adrian Ghenie, Uwe Wittwer and Jonas Burgert are certainly interesting painters that have been brought to my attention. All representational, all large scale narrative works but all from various ideological stand points. Personally the scrutiny of image construction and the ode to art history in the work of Uwe Wittwer is what interests and drives my passion for contemporary art, and where I see the future of Arts critical forward progress.
For future exhibitions I believe there needs to be an injection of humour, tactility and adventurousness that has so far lacked in the cold, stiff, academic and overtly european tastes that have so far been on show.