NRW FORUM DEcEMBER 2016
Bling bling baby - terror komplex - good prospects
Last december I’ve been to the NRW Forum, a popular museum in Düsseldorf and famous all over Germany, since it presents new media art, e.g. a lot of photography.
I’ve been to all three current exhibitions: Bling Bling Baby, Terror Komplex and Gute Aussichten (good prospects). I’d say that all three exhibitions are also easily accessible for people who are not that interested in art. I’d even go a step further and argue that the exhibitions were popular/mainstream. This is due to the medium of photography, but on the other hand also because of the topics chosen (e.g. homosexuality, ideals of beauty, feminism, commerce, gender). To be honest, I was almost bored by those topics. I’m even getting bored by terror.
Bling Bling Baby: I was constantly asking myself where to draw the line concerning art and fashion photography. Although many artists wanted to direct one’s attention to absurd ideals of beauty, the amount of perfect photo models and half-naked women in this exhibition was endless. On the opposite side of Nico and Anna’s happy, hot dancing divas (“Miss Miami Nice”, Nico & Anna, Hamburg 2011), the ideal of a woman was questioned („The Ideal Woman“, Kourtney Roy, 2011). Of course, the staging worked. However, this topic is so old. So old. And does this exhibition change anything? I would even argue that it supports ideals of beauty.
Boring or maybe just incomprehensible to me were David Drebin’s artworks. Why, for example, did he take a photo of a Skyline (“Manhattan Nights”)? It is this kind of a photo you can buy in every cheap furniture shop, such as IKEA. It might then probably be sharp, too. There are neither details, nor people visible and maybe this is the crux of the matter and it’s just me who don’t get it.
Of course, photography always asks for the reason of the chosen medium. Why didn’t the artist paint it? Why is this photo art and similar ones not? The exhibition’s topic might push the question into the background, however, why did Mark Kimber decide to show a photo of his plastics belonging to the series “All that glisters” instead of presenting them in display cases with a dark surrounding and precisely directed light?
Also not apparent (to me) was the photography of rotten fruits in front of a pink background by Christto and Andrew. Is it really just the topic of transience? Yes, sure, everything, even the beautiful things, will rot. We keep on holding onto the fresh and juicy ideals. The old masters tended to show only one side of the coin. And pink is the new brown.
Enough of the criticizing. Let’s name some cool discoveries. All in all, there were many countries from all over the world represented (Mumbai, Africa, Japan, Austria, USA). Also, many female artists presented their works (which is not always the case when visiting a famous museum). I was surprised to see so many cooperative works, many artists created something with a partner.
There was one project I thought didn’t belong to one of those standard topics. I couldn’t put a label on it. Jason McGlade’s “Glas Project” consists of twelve photos, which stand for a month each, or better to say a zodiac sign. The models, who are surrounded by loads of things, lie on the bottom of… let’s call it an aquarium and were photographed from underneath. So many fantastic associations came into my mind. An interesting trick to combine painting and photography was used by Inka and Niclas (“The belt of the Venus and the shadow of the Earth”). The photo was framed and printed on the frame, as well. The frame didn’t limit it. David LaChapelles “The Rape of Africa” send me and my mum onto a discovery tour. We kept on searching for hints and hidden symbols like detectives to get through to the picture’s statement. I’m used to analyze only those old paintings with this method, therefore I enjoyed it a lot.
Here are some uncommented works:
My personal highlight (besides Sarah Illenberger’s “Party Camel”) was a photo taken by Markus Henttonen from the series “Silent Night” (Nr. 1096, 2011-2013). The colors are not rich, it’s kept in grey nuances. It captivates with a light/dark contrast, which refers to the title. You can see a garage, reminding of a decorated front yard in the USA during Christmas time. Right next to the yard entry are a reindeer and bells made of light chains, a basketball basket, peonies and above the garage door there’s even an Advent wreath. Everything glows and is so shiny that you notice the background only at second glance. Behind the garage are palm trees and bushes, it might be a tropical region. I first thought the photo was taken in Cuba, but South California or Florida would be possible, too. Compared to my home country, it must be a place where Christianity is still young. The decoration is kitschy or corny and has nothing to do with traditional Christmas. It seems as if someone moved to a warm place, plays Basketball with the children and enjoys life. At Christmas, you get some light chains and start randomly decorating the house. But why the peonies? Why bells? It’s just what people are used to and they were on special offer. And that is no tradition as I know it.
Some thoughts and photos of the other exhibitions follow: Simon Menner: Terror Komplex.
First impression: Many photos, but I’m annoyed by the topic. The screens don’t look apparent and remind one of the pictures you know from TV. The Gold interests me.
Impression after looking closely: I liked the realization. It definitely is a balancing act to deal with the topic terror. Actually the IS is being downplayed by showing parallels to groups of the Western world (e.g. Cheerleaders). Nevertheless, the seriousness of the situation is present. The dignity of men remains without forgetting about cruelty.
Junge Deutsche Fotografie, Gute Aussichten 2016/17. Young German Photography, Good Prospects 2016/17.
I was looking forward to see current topics young artists nowadays are interested in. The truth is: nothing really surprised me or blew me away. But I wasn’t disappointed, either. To sum it up, it was about homosexuality and prostitution, Africa and the Middle East, new media, as well as loneliness. In regards of the realization, the artists worked conventional. Chris Becher and Holger Jenss proved that the combination of visuals and letters, as well as of the mother tongue and English were part of new reading habits.
I really liked Julia Steinigeweg’s series with “high quality” sex dolls. She shows us how we try to escape from loneliness and how sad the side effects of longing for intimacy can be. The photos were sorrowful and empathic and actually they haven’t had much to do with sexuality. We are able to build up a relationship with nonhuman objects, which can satisfy our emotional needs. Even if we devaluate this, we are still understanding and compassionate. We create realistic dolls and are then surprised by what they cause in us.