Photo: Astrup Fearnley Museet
In the 1970s, the British punk scene, an aesthetic manufactured in smoky boardrooms, exploded to the foreground of public consciousness as a psychological field representing authenticity and non-conformity.
More or less simultaneously, the artist duo Gilbert & George formed and began producing works depicting themselves (always in the same suits), as well as a number of works focusing on the bodily taboos (excretions, sex organs), seeking to shock and draw viewers’ attention to their own biases and prejudices.
Images focused on the body have an apparent intention to demystify the body and bodily functions, though this is done in an aesthetic that is clearly centered around the apparent shock value of the depictions. It is unavoidable that to modern sensibilities, these images are thoroughly defanged and declawed. Few people, particularly among those who have any interest in attending a contemporary art exhibition, are shocked to see a photograph of a penis. These motifs are now ever-prevailing to the point of embarrassment.
Instead, what one suspects is that viewers may react to the trappings surrounding the imagery, bold outlines recalling (literally, as these works range from the 1970s to the present day) early collage and mixed media. These outlines direct the viewer’s attention to their center as they suggest that the images contained within them ought to be shocking. The irony then is that the connection between shock and the bodily imagery exists entirely within the work. The artists are reacting with shock, not the viewer. It makes sense that the artists themselves describe themselves as politically conservative. Who else would have the impulse to draw this connection?
Of course, this is an ahistorical reading. These works were not made in the modern art and media landscape and a more generous approach would be to assume that they worked exactly as intended in the years they were produced.
Some more modern glimmers can be found in the exhibition. One work consists of headlines from UK newspapers collected through word searches for terms such as “stabbed” or “murder”. This is immediately more contemporary, examining the subconscious of the media industry. With the same terms recurring over and over in succession, the viewer begins to experience a sense of skepticism to the headlines. Rather than being objective descriptions of real events, the headlines appear to simply be manifestations of a hysterical imagination.