The pristine white spaces of the ICA have been ravaged. Stuart Middleton has torn down the ceiling, stripped the walls and ripped up the floor. Where once everything was perfect, now there is only ruins and decrepitude. He’s transformed the hallowed gallery into an abandoned factory, an empty, unused abattoir. Upstairs, a stop motion video shows a sickly dog prowling around a white room, barking and sniffing.
You complete Middleton’s installation by walking through it – you’re the metaphorical art livestock, the hungry worker returning to find scraps of cultural nourishment in the old factory. You’re a participant in the grubby, filthy, cultural gallery game.
At least, that’s the generous way of approaching it. But if you’d never been to the ICA before, you’d walk in and just see an empty room. A bit of a grotty one, with peeling walls and rotting wooden floors, but still just an empty room. The only way that’s explained is through a short story written by the artist – there’s no other concession made to helping you understand what this is. So you’re just stood there, coming up with narratives for why this empty room is so empty. And an empty room isn’t exactly a new conceptual conceit. The whole installation is unrewarding, and maybe even a bit silly.
You complete Middleton’s installation by walking through it – you’re the metaphorical art livestock, the hungry worker returning to find scraps of cultural nourishment in the old factory. You’re a participant in the grubby, filthy, cultural gallery game.
At least, that’s the generous way of approaching it. But if you’d never been to the ICA before, you’d walk in and just see an empty room. A bit of a grotty one, with peeling walls and rotting wooden floors, but still just an empty room. The only way that’s explained is through a short story written by the artist – there’s no other concession made to helping you understand what this is. So you’re just stood there, coming up with narratives for why this empty room is so empty. And an empty room isn’t exactly a new conceptual conceit. The whole installation is unrewarding, and maybe even a bit silly.
The thing is, for too long now the ICA has been putting on shows that are woolly, unapproachable and unappealing. They choose interesting young artists, but the results are too often completely underwhelming, too ensconced in a bubble of art guff and too locked in a world of ‘we don’t have to explain this because it’s art and if you don’t get it then you’re an idiot’. Which is fine, and it has its place, but they must realise how alienating that is. I don’t think it’s Middleton’s fault, really. He deserves some your time, but the ICA needs to think about who it's trying to appeal to, because right now it's almost no one.
@eddyfrankel