We Could Have Been Anything That We Wanted To Be (2011) Ruth Ewan
A New Year and a resolution to re-establish more regular posts to Laughing Torso. Last summer was sadly consumed with caring for my ailing ninety-nine year old grandmother who passed away in July after a very slow and sad decline.
The first exhibition of 2015 at MK Gallery has thankfully got the resolution off to a great start. Located in my home town (or City, depending on your loyalties), I am very spoilt to have this wonderful gallery on my door step and must confess that during the five years I have lived in Milton Keynes have, due to being limited to weekends for gallery visiting, mostly overlooked it in favour of visiting London exhibitions. Shameful, especially as this summer the gallery will close for two years due to an exciting multi-million pound expansion! So I have resolved to reconnect with MK Gallery much more proactively – now and after its redevelopment.
Time and Relative Dimensions in Space (2001) Mark Wallinger
I attended the exhibition on its preview night when its
curator, Dr Marquard Smith held an ‘in conversation’ talk along with two
artists featured in the exhibition, Mark Wallinger and Ruth Ewan. I love events like these - they always give real
insights into an exhibition as only the curator him/herself can and I love
listening to people discussing art articulately and with passion and conviction. How to Construct a Time Machine features work
by artists interested in notions of time and how art can be used as a machine
or device for exploring how time is perceived, presented and manipulated.
The Time Machine in Alphabetical Order (2010) Thomson & Craighead
One Year Performance 1980-81, Tehching Hsieh
Among the film work, sculptural pieces ranging from Mark
Wallinger’s massive “Time and Relative Dimensions in Space” (2001) - a full
scale aluminium version of Dr Who’s tardis, to the 20cm diameter “100 Years”
(2004) from Kris Martin - a small brass sphere set to explode in 2104, added
contrast. The mechanics of the projectors
and audios from the films, along with the kinetics from Mat Collishaw’s “Magic
Lantern Small” (2010) make this a very noisy exhibition. It also fell foul to technical issues on both
my visits. On the preview night, “Sleep”
had no audio and on my second visit Catherine Yass’s “Safety Last” (2011), a
manipulation of the iconic clip of Harold Lloyd clinging onto a clock on the
front of a skyscraper from his 1923 film, wasn’t working and Katie Paterson’s “Field
of Sky (91.800g)” (2014), a found meteorite, cast melted and re-cast into a new
version, was missing completely. This was
a real shame and let down Marquard’s curatorial vision. Despite this, however, How to Construct a
Time Machine is a strong and sophisticatedly curated and deserves more than one
visit to fully appreciate all the subtleties of the works on display as well as
their interactions with each other.