Reviews artasiapacific.com^139Opposite page
SOPHIA AL-MARIA
Installation view of the exhibition “Everything
Must Go” at The Third Line, Dubai, 2017.
Courtesy the artist and The Third Line.
This page
HH LIM
The Cage the Bench and the Luggage
2011
Galvanized steel and aluminum suitcase with
padlocks and chain, 484 x 216 x 228 cm.
Courtesy the artist and MAXXI – National
Museum of 21st Century Arts, Rome.
ROME
MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Arts“Please Come Back. The World as Prison?” was
a group show at MAXXI – National Museum of
21st Century Arts in Rome that examined the
material and metaphorical meanings of prisons.
The exhibition was organized according to three
thematic strands, first reflecting on the physical
and psychological experiences of prisoners
in coercive structures, then on the politics of
erecting social and political barriers, and finally
on the global proliferation of sophisticated
surveillance systems. By mounting the exhibition
of 50 works spanning mediums including CCTV
footage, video installations, paintings, drawings,
photography and more by 26 artists, curators Hou
Hanru and Luigia Lonardelli sought to explore
our modes of navigation in constantly controlled
environments, and our responses to new,
boundless forms of global surveillance.
The Cage the Bench and the Luggage (2011)
by Malaysian-Chinese artist HH Lim provided
an apt starting point for the show, condensing
in one work the ideas of barriers, coercion and
surveillance. The installation featured a large
metal cage enclosing a suitcase in chains, which
shared the cell with a bench that straddled both
sides of the cage’s bars. Visitors could sit—half
of the bench was accessible, anyway—and watch
over the suitcase, pondering its contents and the
reason for its incarceration.
Approaching the theme of imprisonment
from a personal angle, Zhang Yue documented
his experience with “Painting Project” (2011).
The series gathered 32 drawings that reproduced
details of walls and fences of the Chinese jail
where Zhang was confined from 2003 to 2007.
The sketches were produced on scraps of paper,
including a chemist’s shopping bag and a cigarette
packet, which the artist salvaged during a visit
back to the prison after his release, and formed a
compelling visual record of his days in captivity.Similarly, a personal event sparked Carlos
Garaicoa’s timely commentary on the politically
loaded nature of walls in I Don’t Want to See
My Neighbors Anymore (2006). In the video
projection, the Cuban artist films moments of a
construction process: to safeguard his privacy, the
artist erected a wall around his residence. This
footage was followed by documentary images of
seven walls that are symbols of political and social
segregation, including Israel’s wall that blocks
off the West Bank, which is billed as a barrier
against terrorism but considered by Palestinians
(and many abroad) to be a symbol of ongoing
apartheid; and the fence erected by the United
States along its border with Mexico, designed to
prevent illegal immigrants from crossing into the
US, though it has been ultimately ineffective.
The connection between power and
technology inspired compelling pieces, such
as Iraqi-born Jananne al-Ani’s video projection
Shadow Sites II (2011), which reflects on aerial
surveillance in the Middle East. The video
features a succession of stunning, sepia-toned,
aerial views of the desert in southern Jordan,
shot by a camera attached to the wing of a small
plane. When the camera zooms in, archaeological
and abandoned industrial sites seem to surface
from beneath the desert sand. The succession
of views is accompanied by a soundtrack that
recalls the humming of a drone, bolstering the
association with aerial instruments used in
contemporary warfare. Equally enticing was
Trevor Paglen’s C-print referencing the tradition
of abstract painting. In Cosmos 654 Through an
Ice-Encrusted Camera (2009), the artist captures
the passage of a Soviet reconnaissance satellite
across a luminous, orange-tinted sky—and turns
the tables to watch the watchmen.
“Please Come Back. The World as Prison?”
explored responses to local and global forms of
coercion and control from many viewpoints,
suggesting that in everyday life we are all
vulnerable to monitoring of some kind. Viewers
were prompted to reflect on the workings of
contemporary systems of governance through
forceful surveillance systems—before they
stepped back onto the streets of Rome, where
security cameras quietly monitor every act, every
pedestrian, every street corner.
ALESSANDRA ALLIATA NOBILIPLEASE COME BACK.
THE WORLD AS PRISON?