+BILLION-’s Venice Biennale 2011 TOP X “Our culture now wonderfully, ­alchemically transforms images and history into artistic material. The possibilities seem endless and wide open. Yet these artists draw their histories and images only from a super-attenuated gene pool. It’s all parsing, all the time. Their art turns in on itself, becoming nothing more than coded language. It empties their work of content, becoming a way to avoid interior chaos. It’s also a kind of addiction and, by now, a new orthodoxy, one supported by institutions and loved by curators who also can’t let go of the same glory days.” Jerry Saltz, Generation Blank, Artnet I agree wit… More

+BILLION-’s Venice Biennale 2011 TOP X “Our culture now wonderfully, ­alchemically transforms images and history into artistic material. The possibilities seem endless and wide open. Yet these artists draw their histories and images only from a super-attenuated gene pool. It’s all parsing, all the time. Their art turns in on itself, becoming nothing more than coded language. It empties their work of content, becoming a way to avoid interior chaos. It’s also a kind of addiction and, by now, a new orthodoxy, one supported by institutions and loved by curators who also can’t let go of the same glory days.” Jerry Saltz, Generation Blank, Artnet I agree with Jerry Saltz that two of the best things at the Venice Biennale 2011 are Christian Marclay’s The Clock and Frances Stark’s My Best Thing (two works that I will return to later). Saltz also writes that art “has turned into a fixed shell game, moving the same pieces around a limited board.” He uses the verb “parsing” twice in his short quip on Venice for artnet – I admit, I had to look up the definition. The Oxford Dictionary provides a clear definition, and with that the reason for Saltz’s frustration: “to resolve (as a sentence) into component parts of speech and describe them grammatically.” What Saltz is talking about is the breaking down of art so it fits nicely into the modernist prerequisite of citing the art of the past. So Ryan Gander’s work entitled Your present time orientation (first act) - Random abstraction' – staged on the floor of the Arsenale in Venice, is “parsing” Mondrian in its formalism. Moreover, Gander’s work is unapologetic in its “parsing,” his statement reads: “The components of several Mondrian (and other various abstract modernist composition painters) paintings and separated into their solid colours. These are re-represented as differing shaped and sized cheap, commercially-available, coloured glass clip-frames and exhibited casually, leaning against the wall as a random abstraction.” What Saltz is getting at, like his wife Roberta Smith before him, is the continued institutionalization of art – Saltz continues: “Instead of enlarging our view of being human, it [“art schools”] contains safe rehashing of received ideas about received ideas – it ends up part of some mannered International School of Silly Art.” With Saltz’s “being human” in mind, I would like to present BILLION’s TOP 10 at this years Venice Biennale. But before I do I want to mention one artist that didn’t make the list. Mike Nelson has to be commended for being the hardest working artist on the Biennale circuit. His work is curator immune and although lots of roundabout conversation followed the experience of being in Nelson’s I, Impostor at the English Pavilion, the work itself was really a dust pile of labour, and I mention it here for reasons of hard work than anything else. In parts it looked a little Euro Disney (some have said that this was intentional, contributing to the theme park-like Ghirardini) thank god he didn’t go with his initial idea of a tire shop facade! X Franz West, Para-pavilion, Arsenale. Franz West was another artist I underlined to see, and he didn’t disappoint. He was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at this years Biennale. His contribution had all the genitalia, violence, humour – and pink – that you associate with the Austrian artist. An embarrassed few gathered around one of West’s videos that showed the artist hauling a giant strap-on dildo around between his legs – the irony was it looked like he was giving birth to the thing. IX Thomas Hirschhorn (Swiss Pavilion), Crystal of Resistance, mixed-media installation. Hirschhorn is on the list because I chose to forget that I saw the same internet sourced images of maimed and decapitated bodies in his solo show in London 5 years ago. Like Nelson, this is a laborious effort by the Swiss artist. Once again, his trademark use of foil and packaging tape, coat readymades. References to philosophy and crystals are found throughout the Swiss Pavilion in book form. Towers of television screens with the same images of mutilated bodies show a finger scanning voraciously via touchscreen manipulation. The best aspect of Hirschhorn’s work was the audience reaction, or apathy. Shattered mirrors acted as a backdrop to the whole installation – the mirrors sometimes crisscrossing into the central space. One middle aged man decided to spend five minutes fixing his hair in one of the mirrors, while another younger male mirrored the action of what was displayed on the televisions by being more focused on his iphone than what was between the pockets of crystals; images that brutally illustrated the aftermath of man’s inhumanity to man, or presumedly accidental death. VIII Misheck Masamvu (Zimbabwe Biennale), painting. Sub-Saharan African nations have had little or no voice at Venice in the past – South Africa being the exception. Painting was all but absent at this year’s Venice Biennale – Masamvu stood out as someone that brings a little individualism back into painting. His paintings are boosted by societal woes, but his use of humour is flagrant throughout the work. There is also a rejection (or blessed ignorance) of the modus operandi that defines contemporary painting. The Chilean painter Juan Davila’s – dominating presence at Documenta 12 was the last time I experienced a painter stand out from the new media dominance at these international art shows. Masamvu paints the body, but more often than not the figuration is being tormented by “being human.” There are instances where the body becomes a playground for other bodies to copulate with, or inject into – creating communities of harsh colours and forms. Painting is one of the only mediums that can bring much needed individualism to the Biennale, it is a pity that the curators don’t utilise this potent ingredient more often. VII Han Hoogerbrugge (Danish Pavilion), video animation entitled Quatrosopus. Hilarious, violent and hard-hitting, nothing more can be said – just watch! VI Taryn Simon (Danish Pavilion), photograph entitled Zahra/Farah. Although the source of this photograph was the critically trashed Brian de Palma film Redacted (2007), Simon’s photograph stands out as a visually provocative statement – even before you read the statement that accompanies the work, which reads: “In her piece entitled Zahra/Farah, Simon pre-sents Iraqi actress, Zahra Zubaidi, playing the role of Farah in Brian De Palma’s film Redacted (2007). Simon created this photograph to serve as the final frame in this film. Zahra Zubaidi is currently seeking political asylum in the United States. Since appearing in the film, she has received death threats from family members and criticism from friends and neighbours who consider her participation in the film to be pornography. De Palma’s film is based on the true story of the gang rape and murder of a fourteen year-old Iraqi girl, Abeer Qasim Hamza, by U.S. soldiers, outside Al-Mahmudiyah, Iraq, on March 12, 2006. Abeer’s mother, father and sister were murdered while she was being raped. After the soldiers took turns raping Abeer, she was shot in the head and her body was set on fire. Four American soldiers of the 502nd Infantry Regiment were convicted of crimes including rape, intent to commit rape, and murder.” V Ryan Gander, Arsenale, various works. The already mentioned Ryan Gander is an artist that you have to find and then decipher. Amongst the 100 wardrobe door installation by Song Dong, Gander has placed a figurine self-portrait of himself flung from his wheelchair, entitled The artwork nobody knows, 2011. Although the viewer has to be in the – know – to appreciate the subtlety of Gander's work, it always is a treat when you fall upon it. IV Christoph Schlingensief (German Pavilion), mixed media installation entitled A CHURCH OF FEAR VS. THE ALIEN WITHIN Saltz’s call for art that enlarges our view of “being human” is epitomised by Christoph Schlingensief’s Hammer Horror pagan church at the German Pavilion. The work itself was awarded the Golden Lion for ‘Best National Participation’, the jury saying that it is a work “that is intense, committed, and possesses a strong personal vision.” I can hear the pen ticking Saltz’s boxes! The artist’s untimely death in August of 2010 makes this work a homage to the artist rather than Schlingensief’s own effort. As you pass through the plywood entranceway of the German Pavilion you realise quickly that the whole space is kitted out in the church regalia of pews, coffins and a red carpet that leads to a high altar. Archival-type footage of pagan rites and theatrical re-imaginings of pagan rituals are played out high above the altar and on the walls of the church, replacing the usually painted idolatry. Gerhard Richter did publicly call Schlingensief’s selection a "scandal" and a prime example of "the decline of painting." The video rituals and sporadic audio announcements are grotesque at times – making you imagine an artist that is a demented recluse, who doesn’t wash or speak. After researching the artist I quickly learned that Schlingensief was far from a demented mute madman. Sometimes, the portrayal of madness and death can come across as being the inner thoughts of a demented soul. Other times it is just a leap into the dark that some artist’s are brave enough to take and gift to the judgement of the audience. III Haroon Mirza, Arsenale, various works. Works within other works, or artists ‘housing’ other artists work was a trend at this years Venice Biennale. I have already mentioned how Beijing-based artist Song Dong ‘housed’ Ryan Gander’s figurine self portrait and wheelchair. Also, incongruous artists inhabited Franz West’s ‘para-pavilion’ in the Arsenale. The Polish artist Monika Sosnowska’s ‘para-pavilion’ of acute patterned wallpapered partitions ‘framed’ David Goldblatt’s photographs and Haroon Mirza’s mixed-media (predominantly audio) work entitled ‘Sick’. I don’t know how Goldblatt felt about Mirza’s dominant repetitive sound but he wasn’t happy with Sosnowska’s ‘para-pavilion’, saying: “Suffice to say that as a 'place' within which to exhibit work such as mine, I suggest that it was designed not to be used. It is highly impractical, the spaces are bitty and no thought whatever has been given to providing surfaces on which to exhibit the work other than on vestigial walls of the original cube.” Mirza’s work (to my mind) added to the repetitive nature of Goldblatt’s photographs, especially his black and white portraits of South Africans convicted of a crime. Mirza's work is momentary, inviting the audience to listen, view, and then leave with the residual scars of visual and aural perception that is triggered by his work and indelibly marks the psyche (well mine anyway). Mirza’s statement reads: “In his work Haroon Mirza attempts to isolate the perceptual distinctions between noise, sound and music and explores the possibility of the visual and acoustic as one singular aesthetic form. These ideas are examined through the production of assemblages and sculptural installations made from furniture, household electronics, found or constructed video footage and existing artworks combined to generate audio compositions. The subject matter of his work pivots around socio-cultural systems such as religious faith or club culture and their relationship to music.” I Christian Marclay, 24hr video entitled The Clock. I am going to corrupt the order of this TOP 10 list by revealing number 1 ahead of number two. The reason for this is to do with hope (I will explain later). I am being cryptic because I am speaking from the perspective of the artist, who views Marclay’s The Clock, his magnum opus, as an end to, or questioning of the relevance of previous appropriated film works (such as Douglas Gordon’s 24hr Psycho). The Clock also questions the future of arbitrary appropriation for the sake of appropriation. En route down the vast length of the Arsenale I was frustrated with the amount of documentary film that is disguised as art. I am interested in the socio-political themes of documentary film but only when it is framed by Channel 4, and in the comfort of my own home. I don't see why the Biennale frame transforms these works into art. The biennale is a lazy space that promotes documentary film, themes that admittedly provoke but lack the imagination and formal twists that you expect art to register. Ironically, giving time to these long documentaries was torture while I could have stayed all day with Marclay’s 24hr film, if I had the time! Marclay’s The Clock is made up of snippets of appropriated film from television and cinema. The artist traces and threads time with his precise selection of appropriated film parts that have either a clock in the scene, or he thematically pinpoints time by using elements that signify a specific part of the day, such as eating at lunchtime. Marclay’s film is also tracing realtime as it correctly tells the time of day. I watched it during lunchtime and my appetite grew during the duration. The Clock is not a crudely cut, haphazard or arbitrary appropriation with vague insights or an intellectually cryptic narrative. Mar-clay’s film balances the objectivity of his main goal – to track time through appropriated film over a 24hr period, but it is the subjective injections of humour, narrative connections and leaps, that makes this film his own rather than the stolen work of others. Marclay’s film is a triumph, perhaps the most ambitious, rigorous and thought-provoking manipulation of appropriated film that has been produced in the history of its type: one of those works that makes the artist say to his/herself, why didn’t I think of that myself. But it seems Marclay was the best artist for the job from what I saw of the work, as he leaves nothing to chance or coincidence, but paradoxically reveals that chance and coincidence are the main ingredients that make up the time and fate of our fictional day through the silver screen. II Frances Stark, video animation entitled My Best Thing. I spoke of “hope” earlier. After experiencing Marclay’s The Clock, all the following work at the Arsenale seemed to blend into each other. To my mind The Clock is a full-stop, a beautifully crafted approximation of how we experience technologically mediated time. There were no rents or intuitive gaps in its 24hr duration, a natural loop of time. The works that I had experienced and the works that were to follow seemed to lack this confidence – Marclay’s The Clock is almost a mathematical proof for art, so is there hope to move on? Frances Stark’s episodic video animation entitled My Best Thing didn’t blend with the others. Stark’s work is bravely autobiographical. Her work is usually packaged as awkward drawing and text, and sometimes you will find her memoirs simply presented on a laptop with animated text. To some up my experience of her personal narratives since seeing her at the 2008 Whitney Biennale New York, her work is a joy to see. Part of her statement reads: “The artist’s body of work stands as a self-reflexive inquiry into the process of artistic production, and the often-elided demands of daily life.” Her single and only work at this year’s Venice Biennale was housed in a cold masonry vaulted out- house at the back of the crowded Arsenale. The combined episodes lasted 1hr 40 minutes, but the time seemed to fly. With free text-to-speech software Stark presented crude animated “Playmobil-like avatars” against a green screen backdrop. Ivy leaves protected the modesty of the almost naked avatars of Stark herself and her Italian virtual consort. Stark played brilliantly with the Italian accent via the free and inaccurate speech software – the abbreviation LOL was particularly hilarious with an accent. From her statement: Stark “addresses the conditions of creative labor, producing candid and affecting work about the nature of artistic practice.” I think this is what Saltz was getting at when he said that art should enlarge our view of being human. Stark unapologetically pre-sents plain everyday personal anecdotes that expand into universal experience, and gives us an appreciation of what it means to be human, minus the bells! Until next time!