Artshots: 'The Future Demands'
By Sarah Hammer, Feb 10th, 2010 | In Art
The Minsheng Art Museum in Red Town is hosting a massive and massively entertaining art exhibition in conjunction with the logo of the British Council Collection and a whole bunch of other esteemed-looking logos, not the least of which is the Shanghai Expo.
It's called "The Future Demands Your Participation" and it purports to showcase "89 artworks by 40 British artists, presenting an extensive and panoramic view of British contemporary art." Feels like more. Works displayed include paintings, sculpture, illustration, photography, video art and more. Everything. The viewing space is bisected into two floors, with the second floor dedicated to big name, new British sculpture and installation, and the first floor a fantastic melange of "folk art" paying tribute to triumphant and warmly endearing British insanity.
The exhibition takes is name -- "The Future Demands Your Participation" -- from a glowing box by Turner prize-nominee Mark Titchner, and the words should ring out in your mind as you stroll the massive and varied collection of folk art on the first floor (compiled by Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane). As a slogan, "The Future Demands Your Participation" is powerful and jingoistic, full of passion and self-import, yet amusingly devoid of concrete imperative and real logic. This sprawling hogde-podge of rural photography, street videos, prisoner art, tattoo gun displays, stylized welding helmets, protest banners, and more, evokes a love and passion for the minute, the mundane, and the absurd -- love and passion spun out of control into unique and enthralling ways.
Yes, this is a welding mask done up to look like the face of the Predator. But not the mask of the Predator. It's the face of the Predator on a mask. Boggles the mind.
So, yeah, for me, Deller and Kane's folk art collection (or "outsider art" if you want to get mean) was a thoroughly absorbing and beguiling look into a side of British art, culture, and expression that I'd never seen before. The collection comes across as almost American in its sheer dedication to works of obsessive and zealous mania.
In other sections and on the second floor is the names: Steve McQueen, Mona Hatoum, Anish Kapoor, Douglas Gordon, and Damien Hirst. Alas, no bejeweled skull.
But really worth the trip: The exhibition is open for public viewing from Tuesday – Sunday, 10am – 6pm at the Minsheng Art Museum; It will be closed during Spring Festival (13 -16 February 2010). Entry fee is 10rmb.
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psinology, Feb 10th, 2010
Cool, looking forward to this...will remind me of Sundays at the Tate Modern...or maybe not.Please sign in or register to comment