Stuart Middleton: Beat

Incomprehensible exhibition at the ICA of two new works by Stuart Middleton.

Now as you know I’m not scared of a bit of contemporary art and am game to try most things but you have to give me a clue! A handout maybe or a label doesn’t go amiss. This had nothing.The handout I was given seemed to be a piece of creative writing which bore no relationship to what I was looking at. I ended up getting quite annoyed and having a moan to one of the attendants.

So what was I seeing? Well downstairs Middleton had gutted the gallery and stripped it down to floor boards with the ceiling gone, some of the plaster chipped and cables and pipe work showing. Checking the website since it said it was referencing “the buildings used in modern industrial agriculture to house livestock, upcycled interior design projects and historical site-specific artworks.” Really? That seems like a lot to be referencing in one work and I must admit it’s not what struck me at the time.

Upstairs was a large video installation of an animation of a dog. I quite liked it and did realise he wasn’t meant to be very happy but I didn’t get (thank you website again) that he was in a “brightly lit cell that recalls the white-washed austerity of vivisection laboratories, euthanasia clinics and art galleries.” I certainly couldn’t relate it to the downstairs work.

The whole thing just felt quite arrogant as if you should be able to understand. Well I didn’t, I just thought it was a mess!

Closes on 2 July 2017

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