Just What Is It that Makes ICA Today So Appealing, So Different?

DISPERSION -- 3 DECEMBER 2008 -- 1 FEBRUARY 2009, ICA, LONDON

All of the artists in Dispersion explore how identities are constructed rather than given, and how -- through investigating the politics of representation -- it may be possible to achieve what may be called a "critical" image.

Polly Staple, curator

We were the last of our crew who remained hanging out at the Entertainment, a lounge bar near Trafalgar Square, Erkka and me. The others had gone to the hotel, for a disco nap, perhaps, or for the fresh clothes. But why bother? Why waste time? You better sit down, chill, check out some glamorous people, save energy. Try to remember that it is all London here anywhere you go, so why run around? Take your time! Relax! And then make your move! 

Thus there were only two of us left enjoying a refreshing drink or two and occasional fog moistened cigarette outside at the door. The lazy ones -- a Finn and an Estonian. But we did some almost excessive talking about ancient trade routes, Finnish and Estonian national traits, potlatch economy and changes in medieval cartography, when I suddenly got a text message from the City Guide Girl. "Occasionally passed ICA, quite a nice show, Dispersion, with Eichhorn et alter. Curated by Polly Staple." -- was Maria' s scant but promising message. We had been willing to go to an exhibition for almost a day, Erkka and I, and to our greatest luck we had landed pretty close to something conveniently small, but seemingly significant. To hell with our discussion on weather Turku had been a commercial centre comparable to Narva during the Hanseatic times! It is time for some action, Mr Tourist! We just had to wait for Silvia a wee bit more and off we were, the three of us, tourists. Of course we could have chosen the closest venue at hand instead, the National Portrait Gallery, just around the corner, exhibiting photos by Annie Leibovitz, everyone would have liked them photos, I guess. But I hoped to go for something more cutting edge. For something more London. For something which could make me think, puzzle and trick me a bit. Like good art is to do, occasionally. You go into the white cube, you reside, and leave a slightly different person. Hopefully. A walking encyclopedia, as I was ironically referred to by the crew earlier this morning when we passed by the main hall of Tate Modern, I couldn't keep my mouth shut even now and went on sermoning about Richard Hamilton and that famous little picture of his with a hulk and the lollipop called "Just What Is It thet Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?". It is since then, since the early days of proto-pop in 1956 that this place has occasionally managed to be a hot spot of the Artworld. And I didn't even go into preaching about "Prostitution" show in 1976, with Genesis P-Orridge and Cosey and others, that is my favourite theme of all times. All that harsh rat infested proto-punk transgression in the middle of these flamboyant houses smelling of centuries old stock money, of colonial conquest and the haydays of British Empire. Unbelievable! I'd better not start with that old chant of mine!  And then there is the ICA shop I couldn't keep my mouth shut about, tiny as a shoe-box but equipped to its best. You can find any an obscure cult movie from there which is not yet out of stock. I could see the shine in Silvia's eyes. But then, finally, the exhibition. With works by Anne Collier, Maria Eichhorn, Mark Leckey, Hilary Lloyd, Henrik Olesen, Set Price and my old time favourite Hito Steyerl. Some of them works being better, some less to the point, I guess I will here focus on only two of my favourite pieces here, on few of my favourite themes -- archiving,the status of information and of course, sexuality. 

With some works -- like the one of Hilary Lloyd, showing two enormous double wall projections of what seemed to be her studio floor, with all the paint stains on it -- I couldn't develop a closer relationship, or, to be honest, no relationship whatsoever. The picture was on fucking still-stand as far as I understood. And with some artists, like Mark Leckey, I have another exhibition -- the Turner Prize show at the old Tate --  covering his current position in a much more comprehensive way, it is Eichhorn's "Film Lexicon of Sexual Practices" 1999-2008 and Hito Steierl's "Lovely Andrea", 2007, I am willing to talk about. Besides, I think there is more than enough in these two pieces, the first and the last one of the exhibition tour, to follow the curators idea behind the vague but suggestive title "Dispersion". With Film Lexicon of Sexual Practices by Eichhorn you will first be faced with an empty, neutrally lit room, an idle 16 mm film projector and a nice immigrant girl ready to serve you. Next thing you will notice, most likely, is a list printed on the wall, with each name referring to a 3 minute movie. There is 11 of them altogether in the list, and you can ask the girl to put any of them on. But not all of them have been made yet. And the list runs like that; Breast Licking, Cunnilingus, French Kiss, Licking the Eye, Contorsion. A kind of a porn cinema, but a conceptual one, indeed. Filthy not because of possible arousal, quite to the contrary, arousal has been made impossible. But pornographic due to the almost clinically cleansed nature of the interaction between the person ordering something to be shown, the projectionist filling the statistics sheet for the artist, the museum guards passing by and another people peeking at what you had chosen. It is not playing on the actual hard-core kinkiness of what might be currently projected, but indeed carefully distanced discussion with your buddies on, let's say -- "was I the first one today ordering the arse-licking movie?" "Last time we saw the work of Eichhorn was in Kumu", I told Silvia. "Remember the installation with the pool table, the visitors could play, the one a little bit out of balance. In the 90s Berlin scene show" I guess I got it only now, that this probably was about sexuality too. But then, what isn't? I would love to write longer about "Lovely Andrea" 2007 one of the few pieces I genuinely liked at the documenta XII. But to analyze the thing which was really interesting for me, I would have to have this 30 minutes documentary before my eyes just now, looping again and again. It is Hito Steyerl's ability to breach themes and allusions both verbally and visually, connecting Spiderman with 9/11,  returning from a field-trip to Japanese bonding scene with some vaguely Situationist slogans like WORK IS BONDAGE / BONDAGE IS WORK humming songs by Vice Squad. And what was it all about? She started the whole documentary film project in order to accomplish something almost impossible. She set out to find a single fetish photo she had done 20 years ago, which was most likely sold to one of the 300 of a Japanese bondage porn magazines which existed back then. And she succeeded, indeed. Both in finding her picture, but more importantly, doing a hilarious piece of RRiot Girl documentary. Indeed, on the way she "highlighted networks of dissemination, the relations between private life and public sphere, and alluded to the secret life of images and the order of the things," as the curator put it in her introduction.