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.
