yyt

passively distancing myself more from the art world. headed out to get some culture as a friend was showing in a gallery as i had promised to see the work but missed the opening, combined seeing the show with a wander.

the gallery is quite prestigious. one of the premiere venues. i was curious about the work as i had only seen bits of it but it did seem than the artist worked from hints rather than the obvious.

my growing disaffection with galleries was evident. i was shocked by the size. by now i thought that i would be used to sistine chapel sized photographs but no they still shock. especially when i don’t understand the point except to fill the room. well not fill the room but make the room feel appropriate for the work being seen. how do you make a large white space intimate?
confusion then set in as i wasn’t sure where to go. the entrace was in the centre of the room which where the walls were shaped like an “H” in the middle of the space with prints i later found out on all wall surfaces. although i could see the first three when entering i didn’t know where to go.

did this strange dance as i first went right - then left then turning around found prints behind me. gave up and did an infinity shaped walked starting to the left.

let me stress that the images were beautiful. the work had a stillness to it, the world made by the photographs was enclosed. i am still deciding whether the enclosure is active or passive.

the space ruined it, due to the size of the images i could never block out my reflection nor that of the light coming in from outside. all the subtleties were competing with the reflections. there was no correct place to stand. i would want to verify an gesture, read a look only to find my face in the spot of it bathed by light flooding in from outside.

i was thinking of sequencing obviously in a much more binary way than what happens in a space with free standing walls. thinking that a space like this would want the relationships to change as one moved about the room - i stood back and watched to see if images changed when they were seen with others. i wondered how size - for there were differing sizes from the now wallet sized 50x40cm up to 120x100cm - would play in the distances of the images relative to each other was i walked the room. i wondered if the walls when they became barriers would work with images that while on the same wall were separated by the new barrier. i could intellectually justify all of this. i could reconcile the spare quality of the space, how the lights from the corner window could possibly be part of the work - or at least influence the reading.

i simply couldn’t justify the barriers set up by the reflections, the glass, nor the wish to spend more time with the images privately - well this was a gallery and it was a week-day how much more private can one get.

i wondered why this wasn’t a book.