Le Futur

I went to the South London Gallery to see the latest exhibits.

In Gallery 1 is the work of Shamica Ruddock:

On the wall:

The guide:

In Galleries 2 and 3, Celine Condorelli with Ben Rivers and Jay Bernard:

Gallery 2:

In Gallery 3:

L – R: “Study For Spinning” (2017), “Study For Playgrounds” (2017), “Study For The Model” (2017)

“Study For Tools For Imagination” (2017)

“Tools For Imagination” (2021), “proposals For Qualitative Society, Spinning” (2019)

“Models For A Qualitative Society” (2016), “More Permanent Than Snow” (2019)

Upstairs again, the SLG130 Portfolio:

“I’s Above Me, As Below” (2021) – Christina Quarles

“Planting Motion Plan” (2021) – Gabriel Orozco

“The Source Of Spring Is In The Trace Of A Movement” (2021) – Haegue Yang

“Spider The Pig, Pig The Spider” (2021) – Alvaro Barrington

There was also a video display and I saw it in the middle of interview with Alvaro Barrington.

Over at the main part of the Gallery, Alice Theobald:

A sofa in a big darkened hall where we can watch the 20 minute film looping around.

A terribly important-seeming bearded man is waiting in a very nice apartment in Paris. He sets out some soft drinks, and then his visitor, a young woman, arrives. He encourages her to drink and they both consume glasses of tomato juice. And then he tests her recital of a long list of descriptions of events in the future, which they both have scripts of, so this is not exactly a screen test or any prepared audition. He corrects her on grammatical detail and delivery, becoming increasingly forceful (but not openly aggressive) and stalks her around the room. There is an interlude when she drink some more juice and it drips on her clothing; the two dance slowly in a waltz style whilst modern electronic music plays, with images overlapping. But then the language resumes in the next room and our man is chasing the woman over the furniture. The words she has to read increasingly seem to be a compendium of cliches about “serious” modern French film, existentialism and repressed emotions and sceptical uncertainties and radical politics and the names of distinguished scribblers from Balzac to Houllebecq, all in the future tense.