reviews t. KellY mAson
Diann Bauer: t. Kelly Mason: 40 steps
necrotroph-optopolis
Gim pel Fils, london
10 october – 17 novem ber 2007
40 Steps, 2007 (installation view), mixed media, dimensions variable
Before we even consider its homonyms, the word ‘steps’ does not conjure Video footage, spoken word, text and an interesting range of music gather
a stable or specific idea. Steps lead up and they lead down, they represent associatively around the theme of steps; but a reading of John Buchan’s
potential or obstacle and they may prompt thoughts of thwarted Daleks, Thirty-nine Steps (1915), a wooden cog-like construction with a juddering
Powell and Pressburger’s mythical entrance to heaven, M.C. Escher’s ball bearing and fingers walking its step-like teeth, an anonymous arm
Ascending and Descending (1960) or simply an image of our own home. T. rearranging the tower of blocks, a Honda ASIMO robot taking a tumble in
Kelly Mason’s 40 Steps (2007) is an eccentric installation that embarks on an attempt to climb stairs and the chiselling of some unidentified piece of
the task of unravelling the idea of steps – and I mean this in the literal sense wood do not quite amount to a gratifying exploration.
of ‘eccentric’: its centre is displaced and its structure wilfully unfocused. Two collages that are not part of 40 Steps – comprising handwritten
At the top of the gallery staircase a photograph of a tower of boxes declarations, such as ‘advancements in modern technology have made it
of descending sizes signals the point of entry into a subterranean series of possible to arrive home in two pieces’, alongside film-promo photos that
rails and hanging blankets that form a progression of sub-spaces that house show us robot parts or men in combat – make a similar point about disjointed
two more photographs – another tower of boxes and a blurry snapshot of human ontology, rambling through associative ideas while negating the
what may or may not be a swimming pool – some speakers clad in the tartan accrual of distinct meaning. The linguistic investigation of the fragmented
of those ubiquitous cheap laundry bags and a DVD player and screen. subjectivity of history, society and the self has a long legacy in art, from
The scaffolding-like motif of rails and joints in Mason’s ‘communicative Bataille’s Critical Dictionary (1993) to Robert Filliou and Daniel Spoerri’s An
sculptures’ suggests an architectural bent, but the devising of passageways Anecdoted Topography of Chance (1962) to Lawrence Weiner’s wall texts.
and chambers seems too half-hearted to fulfil our expectations of an The problem that faces the contemporary artist, though, is how to negotiate
architecturally reflexive installation. The video at the heart of the piece is the infinitude of potential content in the digital era, when arbitrariness and a
similarly a montage of elements that remains dissatisfyingly undeveloped. lack of resolution have become part of everyday life. Sally O’Reilly
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