▽ CUNARD BIENNIAL SITE

Despite growing up in the city and living here all of my life, I had never stepped foot into the Cunard building before, or any of the three graces, for that matter. This therefore meant that simply entering the space and discovering what had been hidden from me all of them years, was, art aside, an appealing prospect on its own. When I entered the building I sensed a notable degree of opulence radiating from the interior. There was a certain sense of grandiosity attributable to the fact that 

this was once the central headquarters and main passenger terminal for the world’s most famous shipping company. This former utilisation of the building links rather effectively to the biennial’s theme of Hospitality when one regards how the building would have been a very welcoming and hospitable space for traveling visitors. I must admit, however, that I deemed the space far less engrossing than the Copperas Hill building; this was because it deemed itself much more sparse and rarely displayed any old relics from the building’s former utilisation. As much as I was there for the art there was an undeniable desire to uncover some of the building’s magnificent history, so I was rather disappointed to find myself in a beautiful, yet empty, relic-less shell.

One of the first pieces in which I was confronted with when entering was Liverpool to Let by a Danish art group called Superflex. Their work is quite literally a series of hanging ‘To Let’ signs, which make an allusion to the abundance of empty office and commercial spaces in Liverpool. Evoking ideas of the recession and economic struggle it practically epitomises the political and sociological context, which pervades today’s art biennials.

Unfortunately, the room that Liverpool to Let was displayed in was one of the worst examples of curation within the whole biennial I believe. I had heard others criticise the curation within the Cunard building, but I tried to be unprejudiced and decide for myself. However, I would undoubtedly agree with their criticisms. The pieces, which reside in the Liverpool to Let space do not aesthetically compliment one another - between them, visually, there is a discordant mixture of clashing styles and aesthetics. Even though I usually resent pieces being placed together simply because they harmonise visually, I think some degree of visual complementation is needed between neighbouring pieces. I would have criticised less if the pieces perhaps shared some inherent contextual or conceptual parallel, but from what I could gather - they did not. They may all subscribe to the biennial’s theme of Hospitality in some way or another but there is not an evident concept, besides this obvious commonality that exists between them. I particularly disagreed with Andrea Bowers’ City of Sanctuary being placed over Mona Hatoum’s Afghan (red and black), as the visual contrast between them was overtly disagreeable, in my opinion.  I simply resented the idea of an audacious neon sign hanging oddly over Hatoum’s piece.

I was thrilled to see Mona Hatoum’s Present Tense in the flesh. Although I had seen images of it in books and online hitherto, it was quite another thing to see it first hand. The smell of the soap, for one thing, made it a very sensory experience, which I obviously would never acquire simply looking at a secondary source. Notably, Hatoum produced it in response to the map of the ‘1993 Oslo Peace Agreement’ between Israel and the Palestinians. The lines produced by the red glass beads identify the territories that are to be given back to Palestinian authority. Hatoum has employed traditional Palestinian olive soap in order to symbolise impermanency. Because soap is a transient material it acts as a metaphorical reference to the idea that one day the new Palestinian borders shall disappear and be washed away.  The most thriving aspect of this Hatoum work I believe is how the materials she has utilised hold symbolic and conceptual importance with regards to shaping the work’s overall meaning. 

All in all, it was undoubtedly Mona Hatoum’s work that made my experience of the Cunard biennial site more than agreeable. My admiration of her work derives from its effective balance of high aesthetic value and profound contextual meaning. In other words, she laudably combines a beautiful visual with an engaging concept, which makes the viewing experience of her work both visually and mentally stimulating. With most of the work within the biennial possessing a somewhat non-retinal focus, looking to pursue concept over aesthetic, it was rather refreshing to see an artist such as Hatoum achieve the same success in her aesthetic as she more than always does within her concepts.