metropolis m

In search of the miraculous

David Lillington asked, ‘What is it all about: ghosts, magic or casting spells?’ I said, ‘Maybe it is that triangular territory that lies between the three, but to be honest, I don’t exactly know’. None of the artists in this Special would be pleased with being typecast as magician, clairvoyant or witch. Art is not a miracle, certainly not for them. But there is definitely an interest in the mystical. That interest is sometimes art historical or sociological in nature, as is the case with Judith Hopf, and sometimes it is more than that, as with Trisha Donnelly. Her process of mystification is a well-considered, but nonetheless enigmatic one, an expanding performance that envisions making the viewer uncertain about the nature and the meaning of her work. She regularly alludes to the occult, but in the end, it all remains very concrete. She even makes fun of the loftier things. What are we to think of an exhibition that you enter and leave through the pathos of an organ concert?It begins to look conspicuous, this tendency towards the mystical in today’s art. I do not want to call it a trend – for that, it is too much a subject of all ages – but it certainly is popular. Could this be a reaction to the excess of realism, the much-discussed documentary, that has recently had the art world in its grip? However that may be, there is enormous interest. Rotterdam’s Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, for example, is currently presenting Dark, a kind of semi-gothic group exhibition of ‘gloomy’ art from the last few years (through 17 April). The need for inexplicable art seems to be considerable, especially among artists.Metropolis M here adds a few of its own (pseudo-)magician’s apprentices to the list. They will take a trip to the other side – but do not ask the other side of what. Is it perhaps the backside of being right, where uncertainty and wonder rule? I have to think of the heyday of conceptual art in the early 1970s, when people were also very interested in the mystical. The name Bas Jan Ader comes to mind, here in the pages of Metropolis M, and his search for the miraculous. It is impossible to know exactly what that miraculous entails, for then it would stop being miraculous. This is why the exploration itself is so much more interesting, certainly when it is being conducted by artists.

Domeniek Ruyters

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