PIERREALBERIC

My review of Deller’s show at the Hayward gallery in 2012 - In the manner of Adrian Searle - (MA assignment)

From your weekly programme to your living room, Jeremy Deller is everywhere….

Today I saw “Joy in People” on my way to work. Indeed Deller has been Timeout London’s guest Editor for a week, pointing at any books, exhibitions or events in Jeremy’s taste that you could fancy. But before doing so, you might want to check out Jeremy’s taste by visiting his first national retrospective, currently showing at the Hayward Gallery. The flamboyant gold-on-red banner “Joy in People” (also title of the show) emblazons the magazine’s cover, above a headline that announces, “Jeremy Deller loves you”. “Our most engaging contemporary artist”, as the headline describes him, is going to tell us “why the British are brilliant”. This is my first encounter of Jeremy Deller’s show, and I have to say it is quite appealing.  I will take this three-dimensioned message as my “keep calm and carry on” campaign of the day…

The Culture Show Special on BBC2 entitled “ Jeremy Deller middle class hero” is another way to get ready for a trip to the South Bank Center. The occasion to realise although being considered of one of the sons of Andy Warhol he met in the 1980s, one can remain full of innocence and integrity. Jeremy Deller is not the kind of artist that looks shamelessly for media recognition and ‘fame by any means’.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01cl2dd

I am definitely going running to the Hayward gallery.

The visit starts with the boy’s room, “a display of youthful interests and preoccupations, with posters on the walls” says the guide. It is a sort of late 1980s cabinet of wonder. There are also early paintings on the wall, a bed, a film on TV, and a multitude of objects to look at or to find in the drawers and cupboards. It is a disorientating room. It is small. It has no windows and I felt lost in between the objects. Thankfully, It is not smelly or messy like a teenage bedroom.

The exhibition continues in the restrooms…  Art can be anywhere, even in the gents. Where else can one find the time to meditate on artistic concepts or poetry? Inhere, for example, we are reading the transcribed grafittis from stalls in the British Libraries toilets. Art can be anything?

It is now time to wash my hands.

While the parents were away on holiday in 1993, Jeremy Deller secretly curated his first show. Being 25 at the time, he invited his first public to come and see his house. The show consisted of tee shirts, photos, but also posters in the toilets, and the bedroom itself. This event became Jeremy Deller’s first artwork/project. The bedroom and the toilets, at the entrance of the show at the Hayward gallery, are a recreation of parts of that show, called Open Bedroom, in 1993.

After the “cave”, the space opens up to the beautiful dimensions of the Hayward gallery.  Now I get a perspective on what is going to follow. One might look at a glance for frames and paintings, for strict installations, or for any forms of art really. But after the tiny first installation I went through, it is now time to realise I won’t find any of these. You hear noises from distant videos or speakers, you see people reading on a sofa or even having tea! And so I am steping into Jeremy Deller’s world.

Jemery is a cyclist, and so if you are a cyclist too you will soon find common concerns. “The War on Terror”, 2008, is a display of photographs of street signs threatening you not to park your bike anywhere in Mayfair.

If you are not a cyclist but a melancholic, you could then sit on the cosy sofa with a book from Baudelaire in your hands. You would be sitting next to a painted wall with “ I ª Melancholy ” written on it…

If you are still lost or wandering while you are here, my advice is to quietly take a seat in the first video room and to give Jeremy a chance to present some elements of his portfolio.

That room shows short videos, one after the other, where Deller’s voice will introduce you with humour to the diversity of his works.

One project was about a search for English folk culture traditional events across the UK, which is also available on the online collection of the British council. http://www.britishcouncil.org/folkarchive/folk.html

You could also encounter the “Hand signs for the Middle class” where Jeremy Deller looks in-depth into imaginary gang culture.

This room offers an overview of Deller’s practice; in other words, it gives an understanding of his form of art. He is a curator, a producer, an event coordinator and social worker. His main strength is to interact with people, collaborating with them and organizing events. In some sorts, Deller has the freedom of a cyclist in London, he can go everywhere with his bike, and it is the same with his practice. It is groundbreaking, and this exhibition is a way for us to step into this new art, his works, and probably a strong element in a new page for British Art.

Jeremy Deller grew up in the 1970s; he studied Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art in the 1980s. He developed himself as an artist in the 1990s at the time of the YBAs (Young British Artists). The YBAs were producing untraditional works but in traditional forms, which is to say paintings, sculptures and installations. Deller did something radically different with a new vision on art, something in relation to the contemporary environment and culture, interactive in a way, in contact with the people and society.

This new format of works embodies one very contemporary issue on art, which is to create works that cannot find their place in traditional galleries or exhibitions. The art is happening somewhere else, where the projects occur. This is also one of the challenges of the present show. The Hayward gallery and its director Ralph Rugoff, who curated the show, are taking the challenge very well. “Joy in People” is the opportunity for the public to get a little disorientated in terms of forms. It is a chance for us to understand and to relate to one of the most contemporary practice of our times. Ralph Rugoff, American, is known for his edgy programming in his curatorial practice.

Deller’s most famous work, The Battle of Orgreave (2001), is a re-enactment of a vicious conflict between police and striking miners in 1984. The previous room offered me the opportunity to read some factual chronology of socio political events of the time. In listening to interviews of miners, looking at some of their personal objects, my personal knowledge of England’s contemporary history enlarged itself instantly. Maybe that’s also what this work is about. Later I thought the artist must be a guru or a social worker, as being able to involve people around on such an important and confrontational project. I am told a story and I am getting a chance to see the story.

I am stepping back; going back to the café I did not dare sit in the first time. That is a cafe from Manchester, which was recreated for Manchester International festival parade that Jeremy Deller organised in 2009. He was representing there all of the crowds of the city. The fake cafe is finally ending his route for us here, at the Hayward. All around the cafe are some banners and videos to give us some clues on the artist’s participative works.

In fact, Arhive is Art, the Art is the practice, Art is the projects and the projects become archive in return. The display is didactic, it gives the opportunity to learn about facts first and then to come to the project. And as the works of art take new forms that where created at first outside the gallery space, this “archive on display” is the way for the public to come and interact with it.

On the other hand, the notion of archive and documentation stands at the heart of the artist practice itself. Deller feeds himself with events, facts and issues that are very often common to a large group of people. These elements are documented at the heart of Jeremy’s projects. As I said before, the main force of Jeremy Deller is to produce something out of it. This is done thanks to his power to interact with people and to initiate projects.

Jeremy is not a painter, neither a sculptor, but he is good at what it does. Maybe anyone could do, but he is doing it for everyone. This show is a trail of enthusiasms for individuality and new projects to come. Maybe yours… maybe mine.

References

- Jeremy Deller, Joy in People, exhibition catalogue (Hayward Gallery Publishing) 2012.

- Jeremy Deller in conversation with Mathew Higgs, Q&A, Thursday 23th Feb 2012, Purcell Room, Queen Elisabeth Hall.

- Jeremy Deller, middle class hero, BBC2 Culture show

- Timeout London no. 2167, March 1-7 2012.

Tonight exhibition Preview at the Whitechapel Gallery : THE LONDON OPEN