Modern Panic Guerrillla Zoo Review
by Lauren Jenkins for remotegoat on 04/06/11'
4/5 Stars
Modern Panic' is Guerrilla Zoo's newest contribution to the modern art scene. Staged at The Old Abbatoir, one of Clerkenwell's performance gems; it showcased a variety of talent, from sculpture and photography to live art. This exciting culmination of art is unquestionably worthy of this provocative location and well worth a visit.
Navigating blindly around the vast Abbatoir site, any expectations are immediately thwarted as with each turn the spectator is confronted, or more slapped in the face with the next piece.
'At what point is that just porn' a fellow visitor exclaimed who strolled around a few paces ahead of myself, and true, a lot of the work was dominated by sexually explicit content, but more than feel unnecessary it felt worryingly relevant in our current society in which individual's sex lives are a form of entertainment and pornographic imagery is everywhere from Saturday night TV to being accessed at the click of a button. 'Modern Panic' in its entirety highlighted the blase attitude we now have to sex by confronting the viewer head on.
The whole space and individual pieces were intertwined through reoccurring themes; life and death, hope and despair, nature and science, creation and annihilation. It was through these juxtapositions that some really compelling work was produced, in the art of Iris Schieferstein for example. Schieferstein subverted the idea of creation by using dead animals as the raw material for her work and rearranging them. In this Frankenstein-esque act she effectively re-imagines the role of God and the romanticism associated with life after death. Yet it was in her subtle use of humour, in her 'new species' provocative and humorous positioning, that made her work so memorable and engaging. She sticks two fingers up to typical understanding of life and death.
'Modern Panic' was indeed that; the artists as a collective created an environment that was in places as confrontational as it was beautiful and these artists thrived in this anarchic environment. Although this was unquestionably a poignant installation there was also a real sense of fun and an energy that oozed from the performers and their guests. Perfect, not at all, but Guerrilla Zoo are certainly a collective to watch and hunt down in their next underground hideaway.
SOURCE : http://www.remotegoat.co.uk/review_view.php?uid=7024#reviews
by Lauren Jenkins for remotegoat on 04/06/11'
4/5 Stars
Modern Panic' is Guerrilla Zoo's newest contribution to the modern art scene. Staged at The Old Abbatoir, one of Clerkenwell's performance gems; it showcased a variety of talent, from sculpture and photography to live art. This exciting culmination of art is unquestionably worthy of this provocative location and well worth a visit.
Navigating blindly around the vast Abbatoir site, any expectations are immediately thwarted as with each turn the spectator is confronted, or more slapped in the face with the next piece.
'At what point is that just porn' a fellow visitor exclaimed who strolled around a few paces ahead of myself, and true, a lot of the work was dominated by sexually explicit content, but more than feel unnecessary it felt worryingly relevant in our current society in which individual's sex lives are a form of entertainment and pornographic imagery is everywhere from Saturday night TV to being accessed at the click of a button. 'Modern Panic' in its entirety highlighted the blase attitude we now have to sex by confronting the viewer head on.
The whole space and individual pieces were intertwined through reoccurring themes; life and death, hope and despair, nature and science, creation and annihilation. It was through these juxtapositions that some really compelling work was produced, in the art of Iris Schieferstein for example. Schieferstein subverted the idea of creation by using dead animals as the raw material for her work and rearranging them. In this Frankenstein-esque act she effectively re-imagines the role of God and the romanticism associated with life after death. Yet it was in her subtle use of humour, in her 'new species' provocative and humorous positioning, that made her work so memorable and engaging. She sticks two fingers up to typical understanding of life and death.
'Modern Panic' was indeed that; the artists as a collective created an environment that was in places as confrontational as it was beautiful and these artists thrived in this anarchic environment. Although this was unquestionably a poignant installation there was also a real sense of fun and an energy that oozed from the performers and their guests. Perfect, not at all, but Guerrilla Zoo are certainly a collective to watch and hunt down in their next underground hideaway.
SOURCE : http://www.remotegoat.co.uk/review_view.php?uid=7024#reviews
