revieWS SaSKIa olde WolberS
SaSkia Olde WOlberS
Maureen Paley, london
6 october – 11 noveMber
The narration in Deadline (2007), a new work for Saskia Olde Wolbers’s restrains itself to winding the snakelike necklaces slowly, steadily, across the
second solo show at Maureen Paley, is level, monotonous and slow, but otherwise blacked-out screen. Architectural in their magnification, these
never dull. It subtly weaves itself into an intricate and political road movie. are occasionally interrupted by visual pointers and reminders that bring
Voiced by a fictional girl from Gambia, it tells of the protagonist’s family you back to the story. A roadkill rabbit is mentioned in the monologue; an
history to several generations past as the artist’s characteristic set pieces uneasy glass-rabbit form appears staring straight out from the screen – half
fill the screen. Belying their digital-animation appearance, the visuals are in British Museum artefact, half Donnie Darko.
fact models created from items sourced perhaps directly from the African This one-work show has conflict at its heart. Like all her previous
country – amber and silver necklaces, glass vessels – and filmed with a films, the personal story of the protagonist is set against a geo-political
miniature camera. history. Here the girl’s tale takes in Africa’s conflict between the desire
This retelling of the past culminates in the girl’s present situation, for change and the love of tradition: her father waves her off from Lagos
awaiting a plane from Lagos airport in Nigeria. The monologue tells how dressed in slacks and an England sports top, while her uncle greets her in
her father took her and her brother on a road trip across the north-central the West, in Athens, in traditional robes – each hankering for what the other
countries of Africa; it describes moving from arid landscape to the oil-rich has. This hankering is one felt by the West, too. “We became a destination
state of Nigeria. To grasp the full tale – for it is a fiction, one that, like all her for tourists to nostalgically find a way of life that had long left their own.”
work, stems from a long-distorted kernel of truth – requires concentration. “We” – there’s a dichotomy too as a story being presented as that told by an
The voice is slow and level. The visuals mesmerise. They take the mind’s African is, of course, written by a white Dutchwoman. There’s the politics of
wish of solace from the purposely monotonous speech and triumphantly taking the filmed items, the traditional commodities of jewellery and items
distract its attention. For those who want hear all the details of what is a relating to oil, out of their origin country and turning them into the new
well-written interwoven character study, several viewings are required. commodity of art. And there’s the conflict between the senses, the ever-
The majority of Olde Wolbers’s previous films have lasted less than present battle between the aural and the visual. Like the tourists before
ten minutes. Deadline challenges her audience with a full 18. The visuals her, Olde Wolbers looked to Africa for inspiration, yet instead of finding
are simpler than in much of her back catalogue. Kilowatt Destiny (2000), nostalgia she presents an engrossing, multifaceted, sublime package of
for example, creates an ambitious underwater world. Deadline instead conflicts and emotions. Oliver Basciano
Deadline, 2007, video for projection, 18 min. courtesy Maureen Paley, london
artrevieW 126
December_REVIEWS.indd 126 2/11/07 12:14:31
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