- Ricky Swallow, One nation underground, 2007
Today I finally went to see the Ricky Swallow exhibition at the NGV Ian Potter Centre at Fed Square. It’s called The Bricoleur, because Ricky Swallow makes stuff, collects, paints and carves stuff, and mixes the arty and ordinary in a beautiful way - bricolage.
I loved it because everything was pleasing to my eye - I wanted to touch it, photograph it, have it in my house or on my blog, to own it in some way. I don’t know if that is the definition of good art, but it definitely meant the visit was pleasurable and a success.
Still, I felt cross as I walked through. I forgot how annoying art gallery curation is. Or at least the curator’s notes next to every work. If it was a blog, you wouldn’t read it.
This tiny sculpture of a dead bird made me want to pick it up and cradle it in my hands. I felt teary as I looked at its tiny claws. The curator’s note helpfully described it as “very poignant.” Don’t tell me what to feel!
One of the works was a lifesize table with crabs, fish, mini fish, skeletons all in perfect proportion. I was desperate to know how on earth it was made, because this would change how I saw, valued and felt about it. There was nothing in the notes, which focused on vague generalities about what the artist was trying to evoke. Only afterwards I looked it up to find that, remarkably,…the sculpture is carved from a single piece of wood made by laminating together many lengths of lumber. You can see the lamination lines running throughout.
I found this in the NYT - couldn’t the curator have answered the concrete for me instead of trying to summarise the abstract?
But I think the main reason I didn’t like the notes is that I don’t like pre-digested opinions from strangers.
Give me Ricky Swallow’s thoughts on his own work and I would read them. Give me primary sources like the definition of bricolage, an autobiography or even biography of Swallow, a video of him at work, or a collection of his influences and favourite artworks, and I would use these primary sources to come to my own conclusions about his art.
Or if you have to lecture me about the art, how about letting me see who’s doing the lecturing? Have other artists do it, ask novelists to critique his work, take a photo of me (just a nobody with an opinion) and let me leave my feedback under it. At the very least, give me a note about the curator. It’s such an important job, selecting art and telling someone what’s important about it. I need to trust you to listen.Perhaps I’m a control freak or too Gen Y for my own good - but if I can’t make art, at least let me think about it for myself.
Yeah.
