Radical Nature at the Barbican

Agnes Denes: Wheatfield – A Confrontation
15 July 2009 - 6 August 2009
Off Dalston Lane

A pioneer of environmental art, Agnes Denes makes interventions into the landscape that frequently take the form of powerful performances involving the planting of trees or crops. In Wheatfield – A Confrontation, 1982, Denes planted and harvested two acres of wheat in Battery Park landfill in New York, situated between the Statue of Liberty and the World Trade Centre. It was an act of transplanting rural nature into the heart of an otherwise extremely dense urban environment. As part of Radical Nature the work is restaged at an abandoned railway line in Dalston, East London.

EXYZT: The Dalston Mill
15 July 2009 - 6 August 2009
Off Dalston Lane

Barbican Takes Radical Nature to Hackney
Part of Barbican Art Gallery’s current exhibition Radical Nature – Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet 1969–2009, the experimental architectural collective EXYZT has created The Dalston Mill, turning a disused railway line and waste ground in Dalston into a vibrant rural retreat for the people of the area and beyond.

The fully-functioning, 16 metre mill is accompanied by a 40 metre square wheat field, a recreation of environmental artist Agnes Denes’ original 1982 pioneering piece.

Come and participate in one of the events or workshops, from theatre performances and bread-making to pedal-powered music and tea-time talks with artists.

Mona Hatoum

Other works of interest

Pull (1995)

I particularly liked this piece which has been arranged so that the pony tail that is displayed in the box is actually Mona Hatoum's own and she is in fact lying down with a camera directed at her face, which is being displayed on the monitor. When you pull the hair you get an instant reaction, but the difference between actually knowing she is just behind the wall and just seeing her face on a screen would drastically change your perception of the piece.

Similar Works

Làslò Moholy Nagy

Self-Initiated Project

Conrad Shawcross at Siobhan Davies Studios
shown as part of 'The Collection'
7th April 2009

Slow Arc inside a Cube (2008)

I was completely mesmerised by this piece of work which had been installed in the top floor of Siobhan Davies studios I managed to sit around for almost an hour filming it from various viewpoints. The effect of the intensely bright light coming from such a small source meant that the shadows cast on the walls of the studio shifted from feeling like a cage was being lifted off of you to then feeling entrapped again. I was very interested in this idea of an image being able to have such a tangible quality so much so that it almost feels physical.

Interpretation & Reflection

Interpretation

I decided to choose oobleck for it's enigmatic qualities and it's reluctance to conform to classification as any one state of being and could be a metaphor for creative ability.

The random scattering of words on the satellite is a reference to Hugo Ball's 'word salad' form of poetry, breaking down the structures of language.

The satellite dish is a symbol for the repressive powers who manage to filter out some of the work being produced by artists but the majority of it carries on regardless.

The briefcase has an obvious reference to travel and how many people had been exiled, abroad or to concentration camps. However in this case it is a point of collection which is then focused down through the opening and along the gutter.

The vinyl is then not only a means of expression through music but is a further means of creating something new and unpredictable by spattering the mixture around again.

Reflection

Although initiated by myself the work then left to become very much in the realm of the audience. Their reaction on the opening night was one of curiosity, because of the viscosity of the mixture the process was quite drawn out and the audience feel quite for the good part of ten minutes almost expecting something spectacular to happen. It seemed like it was a nice focal point for people to talk about or even just to talk about something completely unrelated whilst still observing the unravelling of the piece.

Exhibition Piece

The composition of the final piece consisted of a Milk trolley frame to which various found objects were attached with cable ties or slotted into different levels. At the top we have a:

• bucket which is attached to a vacuum cleaner tube
• funnel slotted into the white plastic pipe
• smaller funnel inserted into a shower hose

A mixture of cornflour and water (oobleck) is then poured into these containers which then slowly dispense it into the satellite dish which acts as a sieve, however the mixture just passes through the holes.

It is then collected in one half of a briefcase which has been tilted at an angle so that the mixture runs down to one end where a hole has been drilled into one of the corners.

From here it is funneled down a piece of black guttering where it eventually drops into a vinyl which has been melted around a glass bowl to form a container.


At this point the vinyl in spinning and consequently the centrifugal force causes the mixture to be flung out causing a random accumulation of the mixture on the surface of the player which then soon dries out.

Cornstarch (Oobleck)

I thought this would be a very suitable material to use in my project as it has very ambiguous characteristics and is therefore escapes the boundaries of classification, is it a liquid or a solid?