Pierre Huyghe at Hauser & Wirth in Saville Row London.

 

 

Even though I have been very busy I managed to see another exhibition in central London, by French artist Pierre Huyghe at the Hauser & Writh Gallery in Saville Row London called 'In Border Deep'. At first I thought the gallery was shut because it looked completely blacked out from the outside; I pushed their main door anyway to find out they were actually open but blacked out for the exhibition for which they are keeping three aquariums in the main gallery. Some had fish inside with lights that switched on and off. I was a bit concerned for the welfare of the fish because in one particular acquarium the light kept flicking but also because the acquarium looked dirty, but maybe it's ok I am no specialist in aquariums. The aquariums are positioned on the left hand side of the Gallery next to each other while next to them on the right was a film showing and at the back another film was showing but in the sections of the aquarium there was also what looked like a red painting going across the room and in front of it a stone sitting on top of sand. I mean it was quite dark in the gallery so I couldn't see it that clearly because the whole Gallery was blacked out; I felt like I was inside an underworld. The way the works were set out in the gallery was coherent as there was space between them and it worked well with the films been positioned on the right and at the back of the gallery. 

 

Pic taken of the aquariums when lights inside the Gallery were on.

Apparently the three aquariums contain biotopes from Monet's ponds in Giverny but I didn't see any water lilies floating on the surface of Huygh's ponds and one is supposed to see them. Strange. Inside the aquariums are supposedly sunken man-made objects that have been modified over time by the erosion of the water, I guess, natural elements. But I didn't see any. The lighting sequence  is programmed to a fast-paced rendering of the variations in weather conditions as recorded at Giverny between 1914-1918, when Monet painted the 'Nympheas' which are in the Musee de l'Orangerie. The light sequences for each aquarium follow the shortest day of the year in 1914, the autumn of 1917, and the entire four year period. I wouldn't have known any of this if the Gallery assistant (who was very nice) hadn't told me. I did notice the lights timings were different as one was flickering but I have to say the flickering was bothering me and I was wondering how would it affect the fish? So I focused more on the aquarium with a slower pace of light. Looking at aquariums is reported to lower your heart-beat.

 

 

In front of three aquariums  I saw a reclining figure, a concrete cast, a headless sculpture which looked covered in moss (above). I was told again by the gallery assistant that inside of it there was a heating device that encouraged the growth of vegetation, and apparently I was supposed to notice that the sculpture  was 'emanating a body temperature' like a human body. I failed to notice any of this and if I hadn't asked the gallery assistant or read the Gallery leaflet I don't think in the dark room I would have noticed anything at all. At least it was coherent with the 'theme' of the exhibition. It represents an anti monument as it is not fixed and is continuously evolving.

 

Film De-extinction 2014

Going on to the two films, the first I watched was  the one at the back of the Gallery which was apparently the starting point in the exhibition ( I went to the fish tanks first because they were closer to the main entrance) where Huyghe uses microscopic and macroscopic motion-controlled cameras to record insects encased in amber. Actually they are done so close up that sometimes it looks blurred to the point that could look like moving paintings. I did find it really relaxing to watch, they are slow moving, combined with the soundrack similar to a mechanical shuttle which I didn't hear very well, indeed at points I thought it was soundless. I think actual music would have added to the piece. Anyway, the film is done in consecutive close up frames where Huyghe explores the idea of 'an instant frozen in time'.

 

Film The Human Mask 2014

The other film titled: 'Human Mask' is a dystopian setting where an animal acts out the human condition; the animal is trapped; apparently this is inspired by a real monkey in Japan that has to wear the mask of a young woman and has been trained to be a waitress; I mean really weird.. it has a dark undertone. At the back of the aquariums I saw a stone on the floor which for Huyghe marks 'the origin of man and the development of rudimentary engineering'. Really?  Above is a work called 'the Clearing' apparently made from sanded down layers of paint from the wall's surface exploring the wall as a body, as something alive, what is left of human remains.... again I didn't notice this due to the room being dark.

 

 

I saw what looked like a painting on a wall (above on the left hand-side) and only found out about it because I read the Gallery leaflet. Anyway it combines with the rest of the work with the overall theme of the exhibition. Because the whole gallery was blacked out and by the way the works were positioned in the Gallery I felt like I was in an enclosed space, a cocoon in which one could walk around the gallery in a circular way surrounded by living organisms. This shows that the artist is interested in growth and change as the aquariums and the sculpture are living organisms that constantly grow and change so that the gallery becomes a container where new events and encounters take place, but in conditions and context that are imposed by the artist. Each aquarium for example is a mini theatre with the fish being the performers. Huyghe said in interviews that ' you throw a piece of banana in a compost and there will be a metabolisation. It's not that the banana disappears, but it will do something else? It will achieve a different intensity of being a banana. That's what I am interested in, this banana-ness and this variation of intensity and how things leak into each other'. So he is not interested in the end but more in the transition, he constructs a play.The live elements, like for example the fish inside the aquariums, can create something umpredictable and in doing so change the rhythm of the work so the work itself is continuously changing which will affect the time and space and will help to draw in the viewer, It sent me into a meditative state in some ways; anyway it was a consistent, interesting exhibition with elements of surprise and darkness.