The Past Was A Mirage I'd left behind...
Honestly, the connection of this artists work with the history of the old Passmore Edwards Library (whose shell is now part of the Whitechapel Gallery) and its relationship to the Whitechapel Gallery reading room, was lost on me. I get the theory (after researching it following my visit); that the former library's facade had unusually large windows for the time and it was to allow light and air into a public building as a 'lantern for learning', a library for all, not just the privileged. Expressing the aspirations of enlightenment through glass and light.
Great as all that is, the theory is not remotely important to enjoying this stunning installation. What confronted me on entering the former reading room of the original Whitechapel library (now a raw brick shell) was amazing refractions of light and colour, my own reflection and the interaction between the seven separate structures and their environment. Every step I took immersed me in new experiences, I could have spent hours in that room;sitting, standing, walking, looking from every possible angle. In terms of its relationship to my work, I had been thinking of ways to refract and deconstruct my film through the use of different fabrics and frames; I like the sense of dislocation and immersion it creates. I left the exhibition excited about the possibilities of combining sculpture and film.
Mc Elheny has constructed wood and projection cloth screens with mirrored panels and placed them throughout the room. Each screen becomes the repository for a collection of abstract art films (not created by McElheny), endlessly reconfiguring and refracting the films on the different surfaces. The viewer becomes part of the work, interrupting the projections, reflected and refracted in those same mirrors.
OK, truthfully, I am going to have to do a bit more reading to get my head around the theory and depth behind this work. It has to do with modernism, the revolutionary potential of art and the failure of the modernist project. I could regurgitate what Ive been reading; but I promised myself that I would not write anything that I didn't feel I thoroughly understood and could explain so others could understand - I'm not there yet with this work! Keep checking back for a bit more 'intellectual engagement' with Mc Elhenys work.
Having said all that - go and see this exhibition, its mesmerising!
The Whitechapel Gallery website
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