A new installation in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern?
Antony Gerbil is interested in the way we interact with the overly familiar. By changing the presentation of the quotidien, he gently subverts our perception into a sense of radical unease, enabling a vision of numinous space wherein a post-modern sensibility co-opts a stale pre-modern scenario.
"In my work I'm engaging with ideas of theatricality, fiction and performance" says Gerbil. "The grand piano carries such elaborate narrative possibilities, and I'm trying here to turn these meta-fictions away from that solitary moment of precision, to a more ambiguous and richer vein of possibility where the actual perceptual act becomes freed from a normative linear and contextualised construct."
A former Turner Prize winner, whose installations have been exhibited at Berlin's Donnerschitzen Gallerei, the Ausfahrt fur Kunst in Vienna, the Nakasoto Pavilion in Tokyo and New York's Googlestein Gallery among others, Gerbil brings a keen subversive intelligence and conceptual rigour to his art. Tate Modern are proud to present the work of this profound and original artist in association with Technica Pharmaceuticals - "A pill for every occasion".
Possibly. Or it's just a piano waiting for Daniel Barenboim.
Pont of information, Sir; whose money exactly is being used to fund the display, and the salaries of the folks who think this is really cool stuff?
Posted by: DaninVan | April 11, 2011 at 08:16 AM
I think the part that really pisses me the most is that the nameless artisans who put their heart and soul into creating exquisite musical instruments go largely unrecognized. The instruments, pieces of true art in their own right, are the sole (or soul) means of expression for the musicians who DO get the recognition for their art form. Unjust!
Posted by: DaninVan | April 11, 2011 at 08:25 AM
You know, Mick. If this were really art, you could just hang a sign saying "Mr. xxx xxxx creates beautiful things" next to his works.
But no, we need the esthetic bla blaspeak because the artworks are ugly, dumb and unoriginal.
Posted by: Fabian from Israel | April 11, 2011 at 11:27 AM
I'm obviously too good at this art-speak business. My next career move is now clear...
Posted by: Mick H | April 11, 2011 at 03:02 PM
You had me going for a minute. Ausfahrt fur Kunst indeed. Gerbil indeed. And there was me being all excited that a major new talent had arrived on the scene...
Posted by: Damian Shand | April 12, 2011 at 03:43 AM
Damn! I didn't realize you did satire...
Does this mean I have to reevaluate every artspeak piece you've done?!
Posted by: DaninVan | April 12, 2011 at 06:23 PM
Yes, sorry about that. I certainly wasn't intending to mislead: I thought it would be obvious that I was joking. And no, you don't have to re-evaluate - it's all part of the same less-than-reverent approach.
Posted by: Mick H | April 12, 2011 at 06:47 PM