At Holly Antrum's Grand Union solo exhibition Alicia Rodriguez observes an archive, not a remote memory of something past, but a moving catalogue of a collaboration still unfolding.
A
pair of travelling eyeholes allow playful glimpses of floorboards, white walls
and a collection of abstract paintings. The gentle and sporadic sound of a jazz
saxophone accompanies little ovals of vision. Later, the same paintings can be
seen in a studio. Back in the gallery, the artist thumbs through a book resting
on her lap. She recites an experimental sound poem from 1964.
The
artist is Jennifer Pike, a woman who is not so much the 'subject of' but rather
a collaborator and conspirator with Holly Antrum in her short film Catalogue.
Pike has been producing work since the 1960s, a diverse practice including
poetry, photography and performance. The film provides the central piece in A
Diffuse Citizen, Antrum's latest project and first solo show at Grand Union.
Intimate and irreverent, she approaches the nature of making art and the idea
of growing old through a displaced sense of 'artist' and 'subject'. By inviting
Pike to present her work, and learning through collaborative
research-as-practice, Antrum executes a sort of anti-documentary.
Catalogue
takes the
viewer from Jennifer Pike's former North London home to the inside of Camden
Arts Centre where her paintings have been hung. The camera touches upon the
grey view from a window, plates in the sink, the sound of children and the
sound of sirens. Within the camera, works are manipulated visually by holding
sheets of coloured acetate and translucent moulded plastic before them, or by
viewing them from behind a mask so that they become tinted, refracted and
partially obscured.
At one point, Pike herself peers through the plastic as if
searching for an alternate vision. In another scene she is instructed to 'look
at Holly'. Her response, recalling that of a precocious teenager, is to grimace
theatrically and fearsomely at the camera (presumably where the younger artist
is positioned). Throughout the film, perspective is established as something
changeable and to be played with.
Both
artists are incredibly generous in relation to the archive of material on show.
Scenes that depict Pike in the gallery reciting her late husband Bob Cobbing's ABC
in Sound are captivating. Her mouth treats this sequence of sounds with
seriousness but also with mischief, ensuring that this film is not only a
precious document, but the proud culmination of a working relationship with her
craft, with the past, and with Antrum. By reading aloud, Pike transforms the
poem. Often overlooked due to her famous husband, here she silences the room
with her knowing sense of humour and authoritative voice, save for occasional
whispers off-screen that urge her to continue.
Occupying
a curtained-off space within Grand Union, Catalogue is a large
projection cosseted by grey fabric for an immersive viewing experience. Antrum
has used a combination of digital film and 16mm, which could be read as a
response to the traditional and contemporary stages of an aging artistic
career. Later in the film, for example, images filmed straight from the screen
of her computer, show Pike's recent collection of jpeg drawings, Computer Da.
Antrum's
practice looks at the malleable nature of archive, and how film can present or
represent information. In this style somewhat influenced by documentary,
questions of reliability and authority are raised in terms of 'artmaking' and
'filmmaking'. She layers images and sounds, suggesting a pattern or narrative
that is not fixed but ongoing. This is furthered through the use of different
technologies to reveal different stories. Interested in what she calls a
'living archive', Antrum focuses on the fragmented and the chance encounters,
both social and spatial.
This
approach is also applied to a selection of works on paper exhibited just
outside the grey curtain. Their inclusion is surprising but not totally
obscure: the prints and drawings give the impression of a 'working space' in
the gallery. At Grand Union, Antrum has continued to produce work for the
exhibition through the duration of a residency there.
The
exchange between Jennifer Pike and Holly Antrum is warm and unpretentious.
Importantly, it is funny. Language and play are treated with comforting
sincerity as the viewer is guided through the bizarre and the mundane. The
human closeness that Antrum deals with is an element missing from many recent
contemporary art shows, perhaps for its volatility, or the reminder that things
age. Watching the relationship between the two artists unfold is completely
absorbing. At once carefully considered and coincidental, the impression left
by this collaboration reaches scattered areas of emotion and memory.
Alicia Rodriguez
Holly Antrum: A Diffuse Citizen
June 7 - July 26
Grand Union
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