feature
Seb Patane
Playing Hard
to Get
Protest music, Gothic Romanticism and urban rumbles
combine in art that is as elusive as it is beguiling
words maRtin coomeR
s e b p a t a n e a n d i a r e l i s t e n i n g t o a n e w p i e c e o f m u s i c that forms embrace, a performance between two young men in lederhosen
the centerpiece of the exhibition of his work that is currently on view at and fancy feathered hats who stagger a little, their weary, almost
Tate Britain’s Art Now. The commission represents a shift in gear for somnambulant actions suggestive of a shared secret that seems to
the Italian-born London-based artist who has gained a reputation over shield them, and the work, from interpretation.
the past few years for installations that ambitiously combine different To consider the various parts requires both stamina and a certain
media and a range of historical sources, but his response hasn’t been fleet-footed approach, not just in order to manoeuvre effectively
to scale up or overelaborate. Far from it. The music we’re listening to between different media (Patane’s installations always comprise a
is an exercise in frustration, a perpetual introduction: just as scattered, number of bespoke components that might include music, costume,
sampled voices and electronic beats build into thumping 4/4 time, the text, appropriated photographic imagery and drawing) but also to
piece loops back to its sparse beginning. channel the different modes of consciousness that each installation
Patane calls this a protest song of sorts. The third time round I transmits. Here, as often occurs in Patane’s work, there are leaps
begin to shuffle awkwardly, feeling a little uncomfortable, which in the through history and between different types of activity. Extreme states
world of polished surfaces that Patane’s work seems initially to inhabit – mental and physical – and an erotic undertow thrum or bubble up, but
might be regarded as a kind of involuntary bodily dissent. Patane often to fully understand the forces at work, Patane seems to suggest, might
builds a sense of viewing discomfort into his work. Resting a cool hand require a shapeshifting leap into another realm – induced by exertion,
on the fiery touchstones of Romantic art and Victorian Gothic, hip sleep, love, drugs or perhaps some other mysterious energy; it’s surely
bands of yore, as well as images of flareups on the street, he argues not inconsequential that a member of that party photographed on the
for a kind of decorum, an unnerving stillness that scrambles codes as foothills is none other than occultist Aleister Crowley.
it heightens the aesthetic experience. As well as a protest song, the Talking to Patane, the conversation rolls, as pleasant
cauterised soundtrack we’re listening to might be thought of as his conversations do, picking up layers of reference that at the time seem
anthem. perfectly rational. Retracing your steps, however, reveals a series of, if
Despite the layered electronica that intermittently blasts not broken, then at times tenuous links that beg the question: ‘how on
the room, nothing much happens either in the 2006 work Absolute earth did we get to this point?’ “ [Absolute Körperkontrolle] started off
Körperkontrolle, a version of which Patane presented in that year’s with the archive image of Crowley,” Patane explains. “At the same time
Beck’s Futures exhibition at the ICA, London. Nonetheless, in this I had the idea of the marathon dance. For me the idea of marathon
piece a range of thoughts and emotions are provoked by a handful dancing and mountain climbing makes sense for reasons of spiritual
of elegantly arranged elements. There’s anticipation encapsulated in search and enlightenment, so everything eventually came into place
a beautifully grainy enlargement on the wall of a vintage photographic with the guys on video dressed up in Alpine costumes and the sound
image depicting mountaineers dwarfed by their objective. End-of- which had very physical and tribal textures to it.” While the parts suggest
the-evening enervation is conjured by a smaller photograph on an various paths to enlightenment, explanatory tidiness oversimplifies
adjacent wall showing a couple clinging to each other during a dance Patane’s approach.
marathon; though their exhaustion is evident, a denouement – did they “The work often starts to make sense in an unconscious way,”
win or lose? – is withheld. On video, shown on a small monitor placed he says. “Things seem to throw themselves at me in a sense, and it
on the floor, these images are reinterpreted by Patane as an endurance can be surprising how ideas connect. I can be researching something
artreview 60
Seb Patane.indd 60 5/11/07 15:50:28
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