reviews auto emotion
andrea Fraser, Official Welcome, 2001,
performance and video installation, DVD
with sound, 31 min. Courtesy the artist
and Friedrich petzel gallery, new york
AUTO eMOTiON: AUTObiOgrAphy,
eMOTiON ANd self-fAshiONiNg
the power plant, toronto
18 m ay – 19 august
(2000), Sophie Calle’s wistful two-part work, peels away layers of
To the eternal question ‘Who am I?’, this multifaceted, full-to- emotion as a therapeutic gesture after a sudden romantic breakup
bursting exhibition presents a hardcore view of self-portraiture. by phone while on holiday. Photographs from her travels are rubber-
Anchored by Marina Abramovic’s quasi-religious endurance video stamped with the number of days to unhappiness, while multiple
The Onion (1996), the physical and emotional intersect everywhere. photos of the hotel telephone hang above a series of embroidered
As Abramovic physically peels away the layers of a raw onion, she remembrances that fade, literally and figuratively, over time.
echoes a metaphorical peeling back that permeates the entire Matt Mullican and Rodney Graham avoid such displays of
show. emotion by transcendental means – Mullican with a performance
Author Stephen Greenblatt has argued in Renaissance Self- of painting while under hypnosis, and Graham with Halcion Sleep
Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare (1980) that the seemingly (1994), a video of himself sleeping, under the influence of the
autonomous fashioning of self is instead determined by institutions sedative Halcion, while being driven through Vancouver at night.
– family, religion and state – from early Christianity through the Here, separating rational from irrational cognition while uniting
early modern period. Today, as the work in this show illustrates, we representation and being, the artists both act and are the part.
continue to craft our identities within social structures, often turning Likewise, Andrea Fraser weaves reality with institutional critique
to celebrities, pop stars, even art stars, for inspiration. throughout Official Welcome (2001), her baroque sendup of the
The works on view probe the seams between life and art rather inflated introductory accolades given for and by artists. By the end,
than focusing on artistic persona as Gesamtkunstwerk. A possible having stripped naked and now crying, her sobs betray ruthless
exception is Yayoi Kusama, whose sweetly faux-naive video Song parody alongside disarming tenderness.
of a Manhattan Suicide Addict (1999) alludes to her time spent in a There’s little doubt as to the earnestness of Reza Afisina’s
psychiatric institution. Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay’s gorgeous 2002 harrowing video portrait What (2001). The Indonesian artist slaps
a cappella rendition of Madonna’s Live to Tell (1986), recorded by himself repeatedly while reciting passages from the Gospel of Luke.
surveillance cameras from 16 perspectives, illustrates the role of pop Though brutal, Afinisa’s action echoes much of the work in the show
music in emotional transformation, while showing up self-creation (and much early video art) by neatly separating doing from acting.
as fantasy. Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Eye Other likeminded artists might have been included here – Cindy
Contact (2006) likewise uses surveillance technology to create a Sherman, Vito Acconci, Chris Burden and Orlan among them,
mirroring effect between surveyor and surveyed. Eight hundred further testament to the recurring popularity of the self as vehicle
tiny sleeping human figures reach up towards the viewer’s shadow as for artistic investigation, and that our ability for true self-creation is
it passes across the LCD screen, emphasising the role of the other largely illusory. Andrea Carson
in completing notions of identity. Exquisite Pain (Count Down–20)
169 ArTreview
NEW_October_REVIEWS.indd 23 6/9/07 08:55:02
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