Mike Nelson’s “Extinction Beckons” at the Hayward Gallery London

 

 

 

 

“Extinction Beckons” by Mike Nelson gives us decay, nostalgia, destruction, resurrection, all layered in profoundly moving installations.

I first saw his work in Istanbul at the Büyük Valide Han, a caravanserai built in 1561.

That installation is one of several recreated at the Hayward, but my experience of seeing it in its first incarnation is worth quoting here:

 

“Mike Nelson lived for several weeks in a crumbling market building in Istanbul, defying the usual segregation of Biennial art from ordinary people. He set up a dark room, took photographs of the Büyük Valide Han, made friends with the elderly craftsmen living there, hung up his negatives and photographs, and then left town.

 

Not far from the more famous Grand Bazaar, it required alert navigation through streets packed with people shopping to find the Han. The quiet courtyard felt like a dying historical space, but on entering the shop of a weaver the loud slam of his enormous antique loom filled the air. He took pride in his work, as did his father and grandfathers. In Nelson’s workshop, in semidarkness, hung his photographs of the weaver and other people he met, as well as of the ancient building itself. ”

[Here are my photos of the installation in Istanbul in 2003;  in London it has some of the same elements, but lacks the total context of the building as a whole and the people who worked there. ]

 

“But Nelson’s work was not about him, nor about the photographs—it was about respect for the history and the poetry of the building and its workers—soon to be swept away by disintegration and globalization. Most art critics found Nelson’s area shut and believed they had missed seeing the art work. In fact, they had missed seeing the point of the art work, which was about the life and history of the ancient building and its aged workers. The fact that they thought they had missed something was perfect “poetic justice.” (  quoted in my book Art and Politics Now, 2010)”

 

“Poetic Justice” was the title of the 2003 8th Istanbul Biennial, curated by Dan Cameron, in which Nelson showed this work. He has subsequently shown it in Venice and now at the Hayward, where it is embedded in a series of disorienting installations that require us to again navigate carefully.

We  had a personal guide through the exhibition. Her name was Charity

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These strange objects, belong to various odd reference points.

a gambling den, a captain’s bar and a travel agent’s office.

 

“The rooms are deserted, but convey a feeling of unease as if they have only recently been vacated . . .

The title refers to a 17th century shipwreck, the survivors of which ( many of them prisoniers or indentured laboureres) attemted to create a free society in Bermuda before they were forced to build new ships The Deliverance and the Patience – to continue their journey to Virginia. ”

 

So how does the title fit with what we experience and what we see. Ideals of travel as freedom as opposed to forced travel, gambling as a hope for a better life usually lost in addiction,  a Marxixt manifesto, again a hope that has not been realized.

 

The next part of the exhibition called “I Imposter” recreated Nelson’s photographic studio in the Buyuk Valide Han.

 

Another major installation “Triple Bluff Canyon”

layered references to Smithson’s early work “Partially Buried Woodshed,” with references evoking the deserts of the Middle East destroyed by war.

The exploded tires were gathered near the M25 motorway and Nelson sees them as sculptures that speak to the violence of our society.

Note the reference to Shell in the buried pipeline.

 

The next part of the exhibition included extensive references to obsolete tools now enshrined as sculpture.

 

 

 

The next installation Amnesiac referred in its title to a fictious biker gang. Imaginary creatures and an imaginary fire from junk

 

The largest installation and most peculiar had this strange title;

‘Studio Apparatus for Kunsthalle Munster – A thematic instalment observing the Calindrical Celebration of its inception: Introduction; towards a linear understanding of notoriety, power, and their interconnectedness, furtuobjext ( misspelt); mysterious  island** see introduction of Barothic Shift”

I don’t know what most of this means, but here is the installation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The whole experience was unsettlng to say the least. Let’s go back to the title “Extinction Beckons” and that helps to put it all together. All of Nelson’s materials are gathered from junk yards, extinction, but he has brought them into a new environment, an art gallery! at the same time  extinction is beckoning us, and part of the reason is a profligate disregard for what we throw away and the companies packaging all that plastic. So yes, extinction does beckon, and walking through a series of disorienting spaces can perhaps give us pause about what we are doing to our planet.