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From: Jane Devers
Category: Exhibitions
Date: 11 October 2003
This was a good show because it presented a coherent subject in some depth. The videos might not always be much cop, but at leat you got an overview of this influential area of contemporary art. 90 per cent of the movies showed people, the artist/narcissist messing around with their bodies and minds. Many self-portaits saying what it is possible to create in terms of meaning with just your own body and the dead eye of the camera. Like a child stuck in the house, bored out of their mind. This is these films' beauty. Marina Abramovic represents some of the successes of the form. Her art is striking and enhanced by her powerful charisma, the piece where she is holding a bow, while her partner pulls back the arrow aimed at her neck, is compelling and full of poetry. When she cuts a pentagram round the eye of her stomach/ the navel; we are enthralled by the dribbling blood and we enter the art, without doubts about its silliness or freakery. Vito Acconci's masochism is less interesting with the metaphorical and visual complexity of Abramovic's and seems like messing about in comparison. There is the usual boring dross of too little happening and not enough to see. Richard Serra's prisoner piece with Leo Castelli is quite funny. Sadly for the minimalist, anti-genius ethos of this work; the better the performer the better the work.In general this video body art is better than the dull irony, and deadpan repetition churned out by art schools these days.
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