Sunday, June 24, 2012

IDEAL POLE Part Three: Guy Bourdin, at Ramiken Crucible

 Guy Bourdin's drawings are on display for the first time ever at Ramiken.

Bourdin didn't view his drawings as art, drawing was something he simply did for fun.

Stellar installation! One of the best installations I've seen in quite some time. 

It was an unexpected idea to hang Bourdin's drawings over the paintings of the mentally disabled, from the last part of the show. The decision to display the works in this way, forms a dialogue between two groupings of art that would never have had an audience, had Bjarne Melgaard not intervened and given them one.

Giving this ponytail palm a platform to speak is an absurdist gesture, which reiterates the first paragraph of Melgaard's press release,

 "What is the purpose of coming up with a title for an exhibition when you have finally reached the point of believing that words don’t mean much anymore? What is the purpose of the exhibition itself when all primary channels of social communication have shown themselves to be exhausted, contaminated by commodification, and corrupted beyond repair? What is the value of relying on modes of communication that have been abused by commerce to the point of total alienation?"
 
The implication is that if we've reached such a point of utter exhaustion and confusion, where we no longer know what to trust or believe in anymore, we may as well hand the mike over to the ponytail palm! 

There's an eerie beauty to Bourdin's paintings and drawings. They are reminiscent of Balthus and Francis Alÿs.

Such an incredibly beautiful and subtle little painting, it seems to contain within it all the pleasures and pains of being alive.



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