Future or Ruin at Charlie Smith London

Future or Ruin at Charlie Smith London

09 November, 2009
by: Hollyw

Future or Ruin makes some pretty bold claims for a small exhibition: its selection of works by a group of European artists apparently deals with themes no lighter than democracy and fascism, war and murder, disaster and survival, and even apocalyptic forewarnings. Phew. You might expect some real intensity from a collection purporting to tackle the rise of fascism, both in Europe's past and our current economically unstable times. But sadly, the punch rarely follows through.

That said, there are some gems here: Gordon Cheung's 'The Raft' is an acrylic and gel version of Theodore Gericault's 'The Raft of Medusa' (that image the Pogues made their own version of for the album cover of 'Rum, Sodomy and Lash'), daubed in weird negative colours over lists of stock prices. That we're all set adrift on some horrible raft, lost on a broiling sea of financial ruin, is a persuasive notion.


Gordon Cheung, 'The Raft', Stock listings, ink, acrylic gel and spray on sail cloth, 2009

Hugh Mendes, who has a thing for obituaries, provides a carefully re-painted portion from the obituary of Harry Patch – the last surviving soldier from World War I, and at one point the oldest man in Europe. It's simultaneously beautiful and morbid. Svein Møxvold's 'Reconstruction' is a photograph of naked men and a young boy about to be sent to their deaths in a muddy pit by soldiers in camouflage. The image, backlit by a lightbox, is unsettlingly clear, somehow too bright, too modern. People on both sides are wearing baseball caps. 'Reconstruction' is a stagey warning of where extreme nationalism might take us, a replaying of the most shameful elements of Europe's past.

In 'News From Nowhere', Monica Ursina Jäger brings together an old TV, its screen engraved with a landscape scene, and two large satellite antennae with glossy black-painted branches beaming out of them. It's a striking assemblage, and the etching is particularly effective, but seems to have little resonance with the rest of the exhibition; it feels more like a shoved in gesture to environmental issues, a modern-world-is-wrecking- our-natural-resources message thrown in for good measure.

But at least it's interesting, which is more than can be said for some of the other stuff. A coat hanging on a wall, and a series a fake guns hanging on another wall, failed to seem meaningful in any real way, while Luke Jackson's 'Nazism / Democracy / Modernity / Genocide' (those big, big themes again!) was actually more 'A level art project / Juxtaposition / Looks Profound / Yeah?'. Sticking a picture of a little skull on a worker's mop handle or having an unremarkable painting of Henry Ford next to another of Nazis doesn't seem all that smart. Future or Ruin has some good pieces, but it's a bit slight; the grand themes' surfaces – like Jäger's TV – are only really scratched at.

Future or Ruin is at Charlie Smith London until 5th December 2009.

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Hollyw