Contemporary art seems to find itself in a constant battle between the logical and the illogical, the possible and the impossible, the visible and the invisible. Is it better to be understood, or to understand something about the world? Do we have to explain everything? Should we even try?
This seems to be the question at the heart of Annette Messager’s first exhibition at Marian Goodman in London, and her first major appearance since her 2009 show at the Hayward Gallery. Messager, a somewhat eccentric, euphemism enthusiast, who has won various awards for her art, presents a series of visual riddles that offer the viewer both an easy route and a hard one. Cryptically titled 'Avec et sans raison' (with and without reason) the French visual artist plays with all kinds of materials and symbols, in a cavalcade of artworks that prod at both your instinct and your intellect, and leave neither in tact.
‘Wallpaper Uterus’, 2017
For example, the 30 pendant sculptures that make up Daily (2016), including a giant safety pin, comb, key and pair of scissors, make you feel like one of The Borrowers, dangling threateningly above your head, while inexplicable works like 3 Escargots-Seins (three snails-breasts) and Le Bras Chassure, (the arm shoe) seem to have come straight through the proverbial looking glass.
Easier to decipher are Messager’s ’vengeful’ uteruses, a dominant presence in the exhibition space: there’s a new sculpture, the very pink Tututerus (2017), attached to a frothy leotard bobbing in the air blowing from a nearby electric fan, and of course, her Wallpaper Uterus (2017) covering several expanses of wall with different uterus designs.
What Messager successfully shines a light on is our own ability to be utterly - and uterally - perplexed. ’Avec et sans raison’ is the perfect presentation of what the writer Albert Camus might call the ‘absurd’: the tussle with our own desire to understand everything, while fully realising that we don’t know anything.
Left, Daily (detail), 2016. Right, Les Interdictions, 2014
Installation view of ’avec et sans raisons’
Installation view of ’avec et sans raisons’
Coquelicots (Poppies), 2016
Papier peint Utérus (Wallpaper Uterus), 2017
Utérus doigt d’honneur (Uterus Giving the Finger), 2017
Left, Daily (detail), 2016. Right, En équilibre (In Equilibrium), 2015
Installation view of ’avec et sans raisons’
En trottinette (On My Scooter), 2015
INFORMATION
‘Avec et sans raison’ is on view until 27 May. For more information, visit the Marian Goodman Gallery website
ADDRESS
Marian Goodman
5–8 Lower John Street
London W1F 9DY
-
What is the role of fragrance in contemporary culture, asks a new exhibition at 10 Corso ComoMilan concept store 10 Corso Como has partnered with London creative agency System Preferences to launch Olfactory Projections 01
-
Jack White's Third Man Records opens a Paris pop-upJack White's immaculately-branded record store will set up shop in the 9th arrondissement this weekend
-
Designer Marta de la Rica’s elegant Madrid studio is full of perfectly-pitched contradictionsThe studio, or ‘the laboratory’ as de la Rica and her team call it, plays with colour, texture and scale in eminently rewarding ways
-
'We need to be constantly reminded of our similarities' – Jonathan Baldock challenges the patriarchal roots of a former Roman temple in LondonThrough use of ceramics and textiles, British artist Jonathan Baldock creates a magical and immersive exhibition at ‘0.1%’ at London's Mithraum Bloomberg Space
-
Discover Rotimi Fani-Kayode's fluid photographs of the queer male body, on show in London‘Rotimi-Fani Kayode: The Studio – Staging Desire’ at Autograph ABP celebrates the work of the Nigerian-born photographer
-
Saatchi Gallery is in full bloom with floral works from Vivienne Westwood, Marimekko, Buccellati and more‘Flowers – Flora in Contemporary Art & Culture’ at Saatchi Gallery, London, explores the relationship between creatives and their floral muses, and spans from fashion and jewellery to tattoos
-
'I want to get into these images and perfume them': Linder's retrospective opens at the Hayward Gallery'Linder: Danger Came Smiling' gathers fifty years of the artist's work at the Hayward Gallery. We meet the punk provocateur ahead of her first retrospective
-
Tasneem Sarkez's heady mix of kitsch, Arabic and Americana hits LondonArtist Tasneem Sarkez draws on an eclectic range of references for her debut solo show, 'White-Knuckle' at Rose Easton
-
‘A call to action for more authentic expressions of working-class life’: a London show reframes working-class BritainLondon exhibition ‘Lives Less Ordinary’, at Two Temple Place, challenges age-old stereotypes
-
‘Dr Tetris’ on the biggest ever iteration of the puzzle in LondonTetris comes to 360-degree, 23,000 sq ft, 16k LED screens in London; Craig McLean speaks to Henk Rogers, the man who’s kept the game alive
-
Never-before-seen Barbara Hepworth works go on show in landmark exhibitionIn ‘Barbara Hepworth: Strings’, various Hepworth sculptures will be exhibited in public for the first time, at Piano Nobile, London
