reviews jill magid
jill mAgid: with
something rare in the field of psychogeographical literature: a thoughtful
balance between introspection and empathetic, nuanced characterisation.
full consent
The back galleries house parts of Evidence Locker (2004), a suite
of digital videos, audio works, website and novella that Magid assembled
gagosian gallery, new york in Liverpool for the city’s 2004 biennial. CCTV is the subject of the
27 june – 24 august day (Liverpool’s City Watch System has 242 cameras), which the artist
here addresses less with the techno-conceptualism of IAA (Institute for
Applied Autonomy) than the voyeuristic indulgence of Sophie Calle.
Magid’s professed interest in the filmic aspect of surveillance footage is
Four silkscreened quotes by Polish writer Jerzy Kosinski hang at the most lyrically, if facilely, displayed in Final Tour (2004), a series of time-lapse
entrance of With Full Consent, Jill Magid’s first solo exhibition at Gagosian sequences of the artist motorcycling through the sunset-hued streets of
New York. ‘Let’s say I’m the protagonist of someone else’s novel’ reads Liverpool, set to George Delerue’s haunting score from Le Mépris (1963).
one, an eerie summation of the author’s life – marred by plagiarism and The excellent Trust (2004), another of the three videos on display, plays out
self-fictionalisation – as well as a mantra for Magid’s own creative practice. in an at-turns humorous and philosophical pas de deux, as a CCTV observer
While the American artist’s interest in surveillance technology may lead – communicating via mobile phone – leads a blinded Magid through the
some to cast her as a dry, Foucauldian ideologue, Magid actually toes a city’s public spaces. Self-cast in a Bardot-esque role (with a brilliant red coat
precarious line: at once author, protagonist and post-industrial cipher, she to boot), Magid finds a perfect cinematic co-conspirator in her observer,
enacts a risky courtship of institutional power to moving effect. whom she pre-emptively supplied with Godardian film theory. “That’s a
The evocative nature of Magid’s art often stems from the good shot – I think you may like that one,” he tells the artist at one point,
relationships she develops with people working for ‘the Man’. Multimedia betraying the extent his concern for her safety has become inseparable
installation Lincoln Ocean Victor Eddy (2006–7), spanning the main gallery, from his desire for cinematographic gold. If only public surveillance always
documents a five-month period the artist spent shadowing a New York looked this good… Tyler Coburn
police officer during his nightly rounds through the city’s subway system.
As with past installations, like Camera One Wester Park (2005), this story
is told by a disparate collection of artefacts, including a 9mm bullet taken
from the officer’s gun (Our Contract, 2007); CCTV footage of the subway
tracks (12 Minutes Taken, 2006–7); and audio of the officer reciting the
names of the presidents, in order. Most striking is Lincoln Ocean Victor
Eddy, a written, first-person account of these months. From its opening
– where Magid and her officer are cast as deceptively simple, ideological
I Pick a Life, 2007, silkscreen four-colour print,
112 x 69 cm. edition of 15 + 2 aP. © the artist.
opposites – to the conclusion, some 60 pages later, this novella achieves Courtesy gagosian gallery, new york
159 Artreview
NEW_October_REVIEWS.indd 13 4/9/07 12:37:58
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182