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For the common good
14.03.2015 — 25.04.2015For the common good
et al.
For the common good
14.03.2015 — 25.04.2015For the common good
1.04.2015 —
The complicated, startling, and occasionally controversial work of the New Zealand artist collective et al. has for some four decades investigated the relationship between human behavior and the systems that control or mutate it. The anonymous artists, who chose the moniker et al. (in Latin, the abbreviated form of “and others”) for its amorphous and neutral connotations, prefer to let others interpret their work rather than speak out themselves.
Installation view of “For the Common Good,” courtesy of West That choice has resulted in a flurry of explanations of what et al. does, but if one thing is certain, it’s that its work is challenging. Upon granting et al. the esteemed Walters Prize in 2004, the critic and curator Robert Storr remarked that their work encapsulated one of the more potent dilemmas in art: “The art that does not love the art lover back…it’s not hostile to the art lover; but it basically says, ‘Come to me, but I will not reward you immediately with what you’re looking for.’” This uncompromising nature was apparent in et al.’s installation for the 2005 Venice Biennale, in which recordings taken from the internet, religious texts, and philosophical works were played seemingly at random. It’s also evident in the group’s recent work at West, “For The Common Good,” which focuses the collective’s longstanding interest in the nuances of ideology on the concept of the utopia.
“For The Common Good” presents territories real and imagined, dystopic and communal; it blends what has been referred to as an “active archive of societal events” with imagined systems of governance and control. Using models and live video streams of Google Earth, altered photographs and video, disembodied voices, and dark, pseudo-domestic furniture placement, et al. takes its audience through a space in which the lines between historical and invented societies are blurred. The installation includes a collaborative score created with the New Zealand composer Samuel Holloway, who the collective has worked with before. He has created a site-specific work addressing the concept of terra nullius, land without an owner, a geographic and sociological investigation at the heart of et al.’s recent work.
Installation view of “For the Common Good,” courtesy of West That choice has resulted in a flurry of explanations of what et al. does, but if one thing is certain, it’s that its work is challenging. Upon granting et al. the esteemed Walters Prize in 2004, the critic and curator Robert Storr remarked that their work encapsulated one of the more potent dilemmas in art: “The art that does not love the art lover back…it’s not hostile to the art lover; but it basically says, ‘Come to me, but I will not reward you immediately with what you’re looking for.’” This uncompromising nature was apparent in et al.’s installation for the 2005 Venice Biennale, in which recordings taken from the internet, religious texts, and philosophical works were played seemingly at random. It’s also evident in the group’s recent work at West, “For The Common Good,” which focuses the collective’s longstanding interest in the nuances of ideology on the concept of the utopia.
“For The Common Good” presents territories real and imagined, dystopic and communal; it blends what has been referred to as an “active archive of societal events” with imagined systems of governance and control. Using models and live video streams of Google Earth, altered photographs and video, disembodied voices, and dark, pseudo-domestic furniture placement, et al. takes its audience through a space in which the lines between historical and invented societies are blurred. The installation includes a collaborative score created with the New Zealand composer Samuel Holloway, who the collective has worked with before. He has created a site-specific work addressing the concept of terra nullius, land without an owner, a geographic and sociological investigation at the heart of et al.’s recent work.
Bij West in Den Haag is een Nieuw Zeelands collectief genaamd Et Al. uit Auckland aangeland dat daar een, naar het mij voorkomt, totaalinstallatie hebben gemaakt die vandaag geopend wordt. Die indruk van totaalinstallatie wordt veroorzaakt door de overal aanwezige Occupy-esthetiek: met eenvoudige voor de hand liggende materialen worden teksten geplakt, afscheidingen gemaakt door doeken over een lijn te hangen en tegelijkertijd wordt met moderne technologie van alles te voorschijn getoverd, zoals bijvoorbeeld een projectie van google-earth in combinatie met een 3D landschapsanalyse. Een overal voorkomend beeld zijn de zwarte vlakken die over teksten, partituren en affiches zijn geschilderd. De titel van de tentoonstelling, For the Common Good, suggereert dat dit voorkomt dat informatie gelezen of gezien kan worden “In het algemeen belang” wat in combinatie met body bags wel ongeveer de sfeer weergeeft die momenteel in verband met terrorisme gecreëerd wordt. Later weet tijdens een performance pianiste Andrea Vasi nog behoorlijk wat lyriek te toveren uit op een dergelijke manier bewerkte partituren van Samuel Holloway.
...If TEFAF allows you some free time and you want to get off the beaten track, stop by the Hague, where Galerie West is displaying the latest project by New Zealand collective et al., which studies systems of surveillance, land rights, and the extents of public domain...
...New Zealand collective et al. presents a new site-specific installation on Saturday 14 March, with an opening performance at 17:00 in collaboration with composer Samuel Holloway, detailed as follows in the press release of this exciting exhibition:
In its new installation at West, the document evolves as expanded references on the dialectical object as sites of neutrality and engagement, transparency and opacity, art and non-art. Gathering together a rich complexity of reflective documents within stylistic devices of audio-visual film, video, montage, and installation, the project looks at nonutopian, or other spaces, within culture. Here, the installation becomes a potential site where fixed beliefs can come undone, where the ground rendered is unstable. Increasingly, land and ideological ‘occupation’ are invalidated through displacement, hypocrisy, and surveillance. et al. probes these issues, in For The Common Good, through real-time streaming of Google Earth, where the viewers can witness how time and space can be reinterpreted and reimagined. The non-site and terra nullius (land belonging to no-one) are marked out through models and drawings of actual and envisaged sites reflecting models of community that seek to improve-upon current social conditions and create communal prototypes that aim to minimize the destructive impact on the earth. et al. references return to the land movements, urban and intentional communities, and sustainable co-operatives including mobile homes & trailer parks...
In its new installation at West, the document evolves as expanded references on the dialectical object as sites of neutrality and engagement, transparency and opacity, art and non-art. Gathering together a rich complexity of reflective documents within stylistic devices of audio-visual film, video, montage, and installation, the project looks at nonutopian, or other spaces, within culture. Here, the installation becomes a potential site where fixed beliefs can come undone, where the ground rendered is unstable. Increasingly, land and ideological ‘occupation’ are invalidated through displacement, hypocrisy, and surveillance. et al. probes these issues, in For The Common Good, through real-time streaming of Google Earth, where the viewers can witness how time and space can be reinterpreted and reimagined. The non-site and terra nullius (land belonging to no-one) are marked out through models and drawings of actual and envisaged sites reflecting models of community that seek to improve-upon current social conditions and create communal prototypes that aim to minimize the destructive impact on the earth. et al. references return to the land movements, urban and intentional communities, and sustainable co-operatives including mobile homes & trailer parks...