I was first overwhelmed by Francis Alys' Politics of Rehearsal, in that the exhibition space was very noisy with different things going on simultaneously. I didn't know what to focus on. I had to take everything in pieces, but his work began to make more sense, and I started to really appreciate what he was saying. There was something very corky and playful about his work even though it was referring to the never ending cycle of corrupt politics within his home town, Mexico City. His way of representing that is with repetition, success, and failure. One way he shows this is with a Volkswagen driving up and down a hill over and over. It doesn't go anywhere, there is no progress made. He also demonstrates this repetition by having a stripper redress over and over. At first one wonders what is the point of this. He uses different strategies that all represent the same idea in the end. What I thought was really amazing was the work he did with moving a mountain. Alys had 500 volunteers shovel a sand dune in Lima, Peru. It was a very strange thing to see that many people participate in such a mundane activity. But the point was to show that change is possible, but in order to achieve that we have to work hard, and it will definitely take a long time. But that’s why things don't change, because it will take a long time, and most people don't want to work that hard. I really like and respect what Alys has done with this work. He's the kind of artist that can and is effecting the world with his work in a positive way. Conceptually, Politics of Rehearsal was the most thought provoking exhibition I've seen this year.
We are a group of Art students from the University of California Riverside who are attending a series of Art Galleries in several parts of Southern California. We have decided to use Blogger.com to post the pictures we take, and record our thoughts and opinions about the work we visit. You can find our critiques and thoughts on the work in the "comments" field, which appears below the pictures of the art.
1 comment:
I was first overwhelmed by Francis Alys' Politics of Rehearsal, in that the exhibition space was very noisy with different things going on simultaneously. I didn't know what to focus on. I had to take everything in pieces, but his work began to make more sense, and I started to really appreciate what he was saying. There was something very corky and playful about his work even though it was referring to the never ending cycle of corrupt politics within his home town, Mexico City. His way of representing that is with repetition, success, and failure. One way he shows this is with a Volkswagen driving up and down a hill over and over. It doesn't go anywhere, there is no progress made. He also demonstrates this repetition by having a stripper redress over and over. At first one wonders what is the point of this. He uses different strategies that all represent the same idea in the end. What I thought was really amazing was the work he did with moving a mountain. Alys had 500 volunteers shovel a sand dune in Lima, Peru. It was a very strange thing to see that many people participate in such a mundane activity. But the point was to show that change is possible, but in order to achieve that we have to work hard, and it will definitely take a long time. But that’s why things don't change, because it will take a long time, and most people don't want to work that hard. I really like and respect what Alys has done with this work. He's the kind of artist that can and is effecting the world with his work in a positive way. Conceptually, Politics of Rehearsal was the most thought provoking exhibition I've seen this year.
-Drue-Ann
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