Anne Hardy’s fourth solo at the Maureen Paley proved to be nothing but nostalgic analogous fodder for the middle age creative failures who extended an output to as far as a conformist mess. The show held no impetus to say anything of current events of the world nor of the artist, so much so, the main piece of the show – Area of Overlap, demonstrated an artist aged without prudence and waning in never mind an independent creative language, but common substance. In total, the direction of the show was an exercise of bridging cinema’s architectural language, a few undeveloped references to literature;
Concrete Island, Remainder, The City and The City and a formatting of sculpture through video. Something seen and done listlessly.
To talk about how the work sits in a contemporary context would be an un-ecological exhaustion of words. The show simply abided to decorum, vogue and the market, functioning as a blockbuster of escapism.
The approach to materials, can be seen used by other artists who have been-there-done-that. The video follows a minimalist Wes Anderson-Camille Henrot approach. The sculptural objects displayed – Richard Claydon, Alexandre Bavard. The beginning of the video takes shows a naturalistic German expressionist drawing that breaches into hobbyist dilettante language, the sci-fi unheimlich air is taken from Hardy watching too many Kubrick films. Her only integral impetus to this video piece is the sound work, the sound works that gently vibrate the speakers contradicting the action displayed but it is beyond evident that it is an attempt to achieve the erotic from using a cycle of slow repetitive droning hums, a symptom of an artist spending too many lonesome evenings eyeballing plants in the garden.
The work achieves its ambitions but only because its ambitions are ankle height. The final result is an effect of the ornamental, display, a lazy curtain to unconsciousness.
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