John Hurrell – 11 June, 2009

The two shows here in two separate galleries, are of uneven quality. One is worth visiting. The other, don’t bother.

Martijn Hendriks, a Dutch artist, has an extremely interesting ongoing project with his digitally removing every avian trace from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 masterpiece The Birds. Without the fluttering hordes visibly seen attacking Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor and others, the swirling sky now defeathered, the action becomes deliciously strange. We pay close attention to the actors and read new meanings to their anxious glances and gestures. And, as there is a large group of art lovers under thirty entirely unaware of Hitchcock’s achievements, Hendriks’ labours might surprise them.

His other project at MIC seems tongue in cheek. If not it is heavy-handed and pompous. He has used part of the 1957 Henry Fonda classic Twelve Angry Men, about jurors in a murder trial where a Puerto Rican is the accused, a film that examines personal prejudice. The climax of the drama is when one of the jurors unleashes a torrent of anti-Puerto Rican invective and the others get up from the table and move away with their backs to him. As the newly enlightened individuals declare their belief that the accused might not be guilty they acquire from Hendriks’ sparkling foreheads and twinkling upper arms, and radiate a newly found holiness.

Twelve Glowing Men is a bit of a one-liner. It doesn’t have the layered resonances of The Birds Without the Birds. Yet Edwards and Johann’s video work Fishing in a Bathtub: Tormenting Luxury in the front room has nothing going for it at all - though it is nicely installed. It is simply bad theatre with all those elements that make you cringe: like ludicrous (unironic) costumes that seem derived from Andrew Drummond or the Wizard of Oz; silly pantomimelike whispering and hammy facial expressions; painful filmic clichés like drawn-out slow or backwards motion. It is indulgent foolery that MIC Toi Rerehiko should not be supporting. Just junk.

You think I’m a vindictive shit? After you’ve seen Tippi Hedren check out this work for yourself and tell me I’m out of line. Show me why any adult would take it seriously. I dare you.

John Hurrell

Print | Facebook | Twitter | Email