When I read that Damian Hurst had opened a gallery I got a little over excited. It’s situated in Vauxhall on street which feels authentically London.. not the showy facade of the west end or the sole destroying repetition of Oxford street grid locked with consumers.. This part of London is untainted by tourists; the dark bricked building and car garage nestled in the railway arches perfectly compliment the gallery, which reminds me of the classic Victorian industrial building silhouette.
http://www.newportstreetgallery.com/about
The first piece in the gallery was everything I hate about modern art. Simplistic cheap rubbish that literally anyone could throw together and call it ‘art’. It’s the kind of crap you see in art college, put together by the guy who smokes too much weed.. so whilst there will be a highly elaborate bullshit back-story, the piece took no skill to put together. It was two inflatable flower’s placed on mirrors.. that’s it (sigh)..
To be fair to Jeff Koons this early theme clearly inspired his later works (which we will get to), so it was logical to include the piece if nothing else as a reference point, a mere undeveloped embryo of an idea so the poor execution (in my opinion) can be excused.
The exhibition is titled ‘Now’, the irony is clear now but will develop over time, these pieces are like time capsules, a snapshot of what is considered to be current at the time, everyday objects deprived from serving their intended purpose, instead frozen in time and preserved indefinitely..
Next came balloon monkey. I loved this piece, although I wasn’t sure why. There is something about a very large scale piece that is immediately impressive. The balloon monkey stands over 3 meters tall, perfectly fabricated from stainless steel and with an immaculate polished surface. You could see a reflection of yourself in every angle, and the scale makes you look up in wonder.. it makes you feel child like (which is nice).
Following on from monkey was a room containing explicitly sexual images of Koons and his (now ex) wife, large scale pieces of unashamed and blatant fucking.. I expect these were some of his more enjoyable pieces to put together. Now I’m a fan of nudity, the female form is beautiful and even the male in this case. I feel this falls into the category of easy art though.. I enjoyed looking at them. Come on, everyone enjoys looking at sex.. but whilst the expression on her face stopped the pieces just looking like hardcore porn, the subject matter seeks to shock because of what it is, and if you are like myself and sexual images carry little shock value, the images seem a little self indulgent and almost narcissistic.
When I walked into the room with the lobster and crocodile inflatable’s I died a bit inside.. i fully expected to stroll straight through what looked like a room containing random shit and inflatable toys, but I actually spent around 15 minutes in there.. Fascinated at the quality of Koons’ work. They weren’t inflatable’s, they were casted aluminium painted to look like the real thing, and they were perfect, it was fascinating the level of detail he’d achieved. The only place you could actually tell they weren’t real inflatable’s was on the valve, whilst almost perfect, you could see the whole piece had been painted. I’ve never been so tempted to touch an artwork.. just to check it wasn’t inflatable!
The unexpected highlight of the exhibition for me was play-doh. A large scale replica of his child’s pile of play-doh. 27 individual cast pieces held together by their own weight. This is a celebration of a moment in time, elevated by its sheer scale, an ensuring celebration of childhood.
I walked away from this exhibition shocked at how much I’d enjoyed it and deeply impressed by the craftsmanship involved. My issue with some modern art it is takes no skill, now while i don’t claim to understand the motivation for some of his pieces I can see the talent in the execution. These were not pieces that just anyone could put together.. Koons’ latter work clearly demonstrates his superior fabrication and painting ability, I couldn’t help but be impressed.
So, it seems I can accept an inexplicable subject matter if the technique is impressive.. I’ll continue discovering!