▽ CITY STATES @ COPPERAS HILL

Today I took another visit to the Copperas Hill biennial site, but this time to view the City States floor, which is host to thirteen exhibitions that of course respond to the biennial’s official theme - Hospitality. City States takes viewers across the globe, with each exhibit named after a particular city or town and this makes an uncanny allusion to the increasingly globalised nature of biennials. It is interesting to consider that a building, which epitomises local history such as Copperas Hill, is hosting a global-themed array of exhibitions. It is, to some degree, a juxtaposition of local and global. For me personally City States had as much high points as it did low. In spite of there being some very engaging pieces within the space I felt the curatorial approach and the exhibition space was sometimes problematic in relation to the art that was displayed. Even though the space brings forth an extremely innovative and truly engaging experience for the viewer I felt it simultaneously produced problems. For example, there were times when I was more interested in the old, left behind features of the sorting office than the exhibiting art. For example, I discovered a sign, of which you can see in the photograph displayed below, that reads - “Its all over….Goodnight”. This is obviously from the last shift implemented in the old sorting office. I felt quite emotional when I found this sign - it was such a priceless discovery. It may look insignificant and very easy to overlook, but it practically evokes back to a time in history. It is a fascinating relic of Copperas Hill. Though it was very interesting to make such discoveries as the aforementioned I felt the space was consequentially overruling the art and this was somewhat detrimental. 

On the other hand, the vastness of the space makes the various exhibitions feel rather distant from one another and thus makes it harder to make comparisons or distinctions between them.  There was also some occasions when rather humorously I could not tell whether some objects were pieces of art or features of the old sorting office. At the same time, I felt rather critical of the curatorial approach, as there were simply too many film and video installations throughout the piece making it feel extremely busy and repetitive at times. Having placed some video installations so close together one can hear audio from other pieces when they are trying observe one individually, causing great distraction and disturbance. Even though the vast amount of video and film installations may be reflecting the zeitgeist of contemporary art practice, I still feel a wider selection of mediums could have be employed, as there were hardly any paintings or hand-drawn pieces within the space, for example. 

Despite the vast list of criticisms I harbour with regards to the space’s  curatorial approach, I somehow maintain that this space is possibly one of the most interesting and captivating spaces in which I have ever seen art displayed; the gritty, industrial feel of the space compliments the contemporary art exhibited excessively. Regardless of a few problematic areas I feel that Copperas Hill’s utilisation as a biennial site is without doubt one of the most laudable aspects of the biennial overall, as it indicates a very revolutionary message - that contemporary art can be used as a means to reinvent public spaces that are empty, abandoned, unused and in need of redevelopment. 

Upon entering the City States exhibition the first piece that caught my eye, unsurprisingly was Black Pillow, a collaborative project between two architects and artists - Audrius Bucas and Valdas Ozarinskas. My initial encountering of it filled me with child-like excitement. The piece is enormous and evokes a very tactile response from the viewer; I could not help but want to touch it and play around with it. The way that it pervades the space reminded me of Oded Hirsch’s The Lift. Its lack of rationality also relates to Hirsch’s piece in which an old, industrial elevator is illogically erupting from the ground. I think it is effective how the artists have took an object that possesses universal connotations of comfort and warmness, but have made it intimidating, dark and overbearing. Just as The Wolstenholme Creative Space it seems as though they have reacted against the biennial’s theme of Hospitality aiming to create a more inhospitable experience for the viewer. 

Incheron was my personal favourite of the City States exhibition space. Whilst the other exhibitions have only the lacklustre red biennial stand to introduce them to the viewer, Incheron has a large lighting advert, which makes the viewer feel as though they are passing through an airport terminal and actually traveling. Kyugah Ham’s piece captured my interests the most. From a distance it almost looks like as if it has been painted, and that the paint has dripped onto the surface below. However, when one goes closer to the piece they realise it is in fact fabric and the hanging sections are various coloured threads. Upon encountering the piece I immediately felt there was an allusion to Pollock with the piece obviously possessing an abstract expressionistic aesthetic, a bright, lurid palette and a reference to his celebrated ‘drip effect’. Ham collected various news articles regarding war and terrorism within Iraq and sent them to embroiderers in North Korea. This piece thus shows Ham’s attempt at communicating with North Korea. The North Korean embroiderers were required to spend long labour intensive hours transforming the news articles into embroidery in order to receive them. This is a considerable contrast to how we can access information quickly and with little effort through our everyday utilisation of the Internet and various other technologies. Similarly, whilst the artist Jackson Pollock could dynamically drip and splatter paint onto a canvas, the korean embroiders had to spend hours of intense labour threading intricate letterings. I thus feel there is something of a juxtaposition between the West and East within this piece. We are reminded of how in conspicuous contrast to the East we Westerners have our lives pervaded by a Capitalist, Consumerist lifestyle where we expect everything to be handed to us without any real effort or labour.  Though I had been quite critical about the overall curation of City States I think that Ham’s piece worked really well in relation to its surrounding artworks. I thought it was rather interesting to observe one of the features of the old sorting office, which hung above the piece making an uncanny allusion to its aesthetic. Above Ham’s piece there was a sign saying “Inward Primary Letters” with blocks of lurid colours hanging under it - this was an accidental feature, I believe, but nevertheless still entertaining. 

Having not been a massive fan of the Bloomberg New Contemporaries exhibition I was somewhat cynical about the rest of the Copperas Hill building. However, I am glad that I put this prejudice to the side and proceeded to visit the City Scapes exhibition space, as with some of the most ambitious and largest pieces within the whole biennial residing within it, it produced a very engaging and memorable experience. The viewer is spoilt for choice in terms of pieces that possess an innovative and original feel, as they inhabit arguably one of the most impressive exhibition spaces of the whole biennial.