INTERFACE

REVIEW

Do Not Interrupt Your Activities

RCA, London
8 April – 1 May

Reviewed by: Richard Priestley

The title of this year’s Royal College of Art Curating Contemporary Art MA course graduation show might be an intent to imply transience in the ephemeral nature of the work that forms the dialogue underpinning the show – and overall this is what is delivered.

The show as a whole demands huge commitment from its audience, with a programme of performance-based pieces and talks throughout, posing a potential challenge to its cohesion and continuity if you miss some of them; although in practice these ‘missing parts’ add to the enigma generated by the more permanent pieces.

Enactment and re-enactment of the mundane and commonplace occurrences of everyday life are explored throughout the show. Leopold Kessler intervenes in the functionality of civic property in a have-a-go-hero, Good Samaritan manner, whilst assuming the guise of repair team or caretaker as far as the unsuspecting passer-by is concerned. He allows the true nature of his handy subversions to become apparent only through exhibiting the video documentation of the acts. Kessler’s acts include replacing a light bulb inside a piece of signage, also leaving his name illuminated once his job is completed. Another is the fitting of a bolt to the inside door of a phone box; another the switching to remote control of a row of streetlights. All of his interventions are altered by the context in which they are viewed: by the passer-by to the act itself, or conversely by the exhibition audience.

Michael Racowitz’s Parasite project is an ongoing interaction with homeless people to provide inflatable shelters that attach to, and are inflated by, building ventilation systems. Each is tailor-made for its user with a functional trend towards being transparent, which is determined by inhabitants’ acceptance of a lack of privacy, their need for security against intruders (who are made visible by the clarity of the structures’ material), and desire to be visible human beings. The two well-used examples of the design on show become urban artefacts in the context of the exhibition space, and they document a social and ethical conscience, as well as the creative ingenuity of their maker.

Footage taken in 1991 of the removal of a statue of Lenin from a central square in Vilnius, Lithuania has been subtly re-edited by Deimantas Narkevicius in his piece Once in the XX Century, so that the rapture of the crowd appears to be directed towards the installing, rather than removal, of the statue. The comical vision of the top half of the figure dangling from a crane, turned from villain to superhero in impeded flight, becomes metaphorical of the artist’s reversal of the film’s narrative. The clues offered by the footage as to its age, and therefore anticipated outcome, only increase the subtle shift when it occurs, leaving the audience with a dislocated sense of cultural history.

Much of the material included in ‘Do Not Interrupt Your Activities’ is only viewed in an art context when collected together into this grouping, suggesting that the selection and curation process forces the viewer to recontextualise these acts and re-enactments through their placement in an exhibition platform, as opposed to anarchist manifesto, documentary film, self-help group video documentation and public information literature. This brave statement as to what curation can do and what art can be is a breath of fresh air in London, where the open-ended, experimental breeze rarely reaches from Europe. Thirteen curating students worked on this project, demonstrating a worldly selection process and an innocent agenda.

Writer detail:
Richard Priestley is an artist, curator, and founder/director of Cell Project Space, London.

Venue detail:
Royal College of Art
Kensington Gore, London SW7 2EU

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