Trying to Cope With Things That Aren't Human [Part One]
Featuring works by Alan Currall, Alex Pearl, Annika Strom, Francis McKee, Ian Brown, Heather and Ivan Morrison, Johanna Hallsten, Marcus Coates, Mariele Neudecker, Paul Rooney, Richard Hughes, Richard T. Walker, and Ryan Gander
David Cunningham Projects
San Francisco, CA
22 January - 28 February 2009

by Tonya Warner

The overarching theme of "Trying to Cope With Things That Aren't Human" is an exploration of the average citizen's assumed dual incomprehension of both technology and nature.    There is the premise that we stand somewhere between the invented and the natural - at times struggling with the man-made methods of "making out lives easier" just as much as we would in the wilderness.   In the service of this dialectic, the works in this exhibit seem to explore either our relationship to technology or our relationship with / interpretations of nature.   Falling into the former category is Alan Currall's "Word Processing," a simple video that consists of a man (or talking hand if you wan t to be specific) giving spoken instructions to a microchip.   Although listening to the deadpanned directives of what should occur when certain computer keys are pressed can be annoying, the video is a clever comment on the mysteries of the inner-workings of computers.   This device that most people use everyday leaves many baffled in regards to how it was created and functions.   The curator's belief seems to lie in the idea that technology, in many cases, makes our lives more complicated (perhaps a generational or cultural distinction).

On the other hand, many artists in this show explore that fact that our perceptions of nature are more often than not man-made conceptions.   In fact, most of the "nature" we "escape to" is mediated by man - controlled, contained, managed and dictated.   The urge to escape city life for the superior natural world is also a cultural invention, one fed by the vestiges of various Romantic periods.   The sprawling vista landscapes that these movements created still inform our sense of beauty in nature.   Richard T. Walker's "Everything goes as if it is always away" takes a photo of the Alps and adds the text "What could have been" and headphones playing accordion music.   What this piece first brought to my mind was "The Sound of Music" and certain German/Austrian stereotypes.   What the text adds is a sort of longing for this natural utopia that never has and never can truly exist.

Mariele Neudecker, in a similar vein, presents arguably the most magical piece in the show, entitled "Heaven, the Sky."   The work consists of peaks of painted resin, intended to reference vistas of German Romanticism, situated within two liquid-filled aquariums in which she has also created an artificial mist.   The two tanks are under-lit on plinths so high one is forced to stare up into them, feeling dwarfed by these miniature mountain ranges.   The lighting and the liquid do bring an interesting element, giving one the sense of seeing underwater, one of the few remaining unexplored natural arenas - thus recreating a bit of the wildness and mystery inherent in Romantic landscapes at their inceptions.

And then we come to Marcus Coates, a self-proclaimed shaman as well as a man who is unafraid to make himself look completely mental for the sake of art.   His half-hour long video "Journey to the Lower World" doesn't entirely fit in with the rest of the show, although it does superficially address our perceptions of the animal world.   In this video, he performs a "shamanistic ritual" for the residents of a Liverpool tower block set for demolition.   He covers himself in deerskin and proceeds to travel into a trace in order to speak with the animal spirit world.   This consists mainly of him grunting and making various animal noises, as well as spitting water on the carpet.   The main focus of the work, however, is not Coates himself, but the audience.   The crowd, mostly consisting of elderly women, don't quite know what to think of the performance, barely stifling laughter.   When the artist starts shrilly barking like a dog they really lose it.   However, when he comes back from his "spirit journey" and begins to discuss it, they snap back into being respectful and polite.   This speaks most to human interactions and interrelations as well as this particular community's shared concerns.   Through this ritual and shared experience, they have come together and started an open discussion in a way they might not have otherwise done.   In a strange way, by undergoing this "journey" on their behalf, Coates is also validating their very real concerns.   In fact, isn't an examination of society's relationship to technology and nature really just self-reflexive - a way of gauging where we are, have been, and perhaps are going.

Also showing at AirSpace Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, UK from 27 March - 2 May 2009.

http://www.davidcunninghamprojects.com/Site/DCP.html

http://www.thingsthatarenthuman.com/

http://www.alancurrall.com/

http://richardtwalker.net/Richard_T_Walker.html

http://www.marieleneudecker.co.uk/