YBA stuntman Michael Landy turns the South London Gallery into a big old bin for unwanted art. Georgia Anderson investigates.
A massive perspex and iron structure eats up an entire room of the South London Gallery . And that’s not the only thing it's eating; oh no – it'll have your finest art away as well! But only if the chief artist, or one of his henchmen says yes to the beast, the beast that Michael Landy is calling “a monument to collective failure”.
Landy – best known for 2001's Breakdown, for which he incinerated everything he owned – is back, with another visually and cerebrally stimulating showdown. Art Bin invites dialogue around concepts of value, possession, curation and of course, our intrepid friend, art itself. So far so good, if you like your art served with extra helpings of conceptualism; not so hot if you fancy something easy on the eye.
People crowd round the foot of the ‘bin’ to watch men with white gloves tentatively ascend an iron staircase 15ft high and lob paintings by Hirst, drawings by Emin, sculptures by Landy and whatever by who cares into the vast perspex abyss. A spectacle indeed: the crowd huddles enraptured by the smashfest, a moment of silence breaking the chatter as works slip over the edge of the bin, smashing gloriously or drifting pathetically in an inevitable anticlimax as they find their final resting place in the bin.
The speed at which they dispose and move on to the next work of art is somewhat similar to the ephemerality inherent in the act of making and displaying art; a show is hung, it has a lifespan of a few months at the very most, and then it is forgotten or moves on. Some work in fact is never seen outside the studio at all.
Metaphor abounds – this deliberate mound of trash, is it symbolic of contemporary art today, of the art market’s arbitrary valuations, or perhaps even of celebrity art culture, in which case - irony as well Landy? It makes for a heady cocktail.
Value and democratization of art and display are hot topics in contemporary art discourse, as attested by Gormley’s fourth plinth, the Free Art Fair and Alternative Risk Transfer last year.
Those not directly involved in the bin, i.e those denied the 'privilege' of a right old binning by Landy can instead revel in the smug knowledge of their safe incomes and uncontestably valued contribution to society. Those who fail to meet the specifications of Landy’s somewhat mystifying, (and probably arbitrary) system of judging what’s binnable can also feel smug: they are not trash.
So roll up to the Art Bin armed with your failed masterpieces. Allow the bin to steadily fill up, and you too can become part of this interesting destructive and constructive spectacle.
Michael Landy’s Art Bin is at the South London Gallery until 14th March 2010.
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