implicit art

_{Theo Eshetu, Trip to Mount Ziqualla, Ethiopia, 2005 © Theo Eshetu, Image from the International Center for Photography}

The new exhibition curated by Okwui Enwezor at the International Centre for Photography in New York has just recently opened.
This was a fantastic exhibition of photography, clearly indicative of the high level of contemporary African work, which is far more energetic, lively and real than any current American or European photography. I don’t claim to be any sort of expert on photography but the show really does prove it. Current western work just looks bland and boring next to this vibrant and important work. As the curatorial brief states, the artists have taken up a problematic or focused attention on social subjects. They deal with the reality of everyday living.
South African artists were well represented on the show- Moshekwa Langa, Zwelethu Mthethwa,  Jo Ractliffe, Tracy Rose,  Mikhael Subotzky, Guy Tillum and Nontsikilelo Veleko. Some were present at the opening – a packed gallery on 43rd street across the road from the ICP University.
The show is definitely worth a look if you can get over there, otherwise check out their website.

Another show that I saw, expecting something exciting, was Bibliography by Rachel Whiteread at the Luhring Augustine Gallery. I was particularly disappointed to find cast after cast of the inside of cardboard boxes.. A token cast was transferred to bronze to allude to that solid heavy expensive monumental feeling. Most of them were placed on shelves and under chairs- a reference to Bruce Nauman’s cast of the underneath space of a chair. I found her previous work exciting-House and her work for the Trafalgar square Plinth. Its had a solidity and austere atmosphere about it, but this show clearly demonstrates that she just hasn’t had a new idea in years. There were some collages as well which looked as if they had been put together on the flight over to New York. Shoddy and uncaring in their execution.
She seems to be just cashing in on her name now and this kind of thing upsets me. I cannot take it seriously at all when people who have previously done such grand work, are able to degenerate into work that is opportunistic and does ones reputation no good at all- www.luhringaugustine.com. A review by Ken Johnson can also be seen here on the New York Times site.
My new motto: Tell it like it is. Few people do in the artworld.