The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureArt

Gerard Byrne: A State of Neutral Pleasure at the Whitechapel Gallery

Gerard Byrne: A State of Neutral Pleasure at the Whitechapel Gallery | Exhibition review
8 February 2013
Eleanor MacFarlane
Avatar
Eleanor MacFarlane
8 February 2013

You have to be in a serious mood for this exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery. The video installations play a rolling programme of different works where actors re-enact conversations about sexuality, life and ideas, drawn from real historical conversations amongst intellectuals.

There are aspects to admire in the installation, especially the way scenes refer to each other, and at times reflect parts of each other: characters filmed watching on TV scenes which play on different screens.

Other works are on TVs with headphones, again one piece comprising several related conversations and scenes. The walls around show a series of vintage photographs, each a small black and white insight, and all seeming to add up to something, the point of which remains elusive. It’s an effort to feel moved enough to make the connections and figure it all out.

The forced and unnatural quality of acting is too distracting, and makes you appreciate normal TV drama acting, although the mannered style is partly the point.

The Upcoming had been looking forward to this exhibition, but found the experience like reading a novel that everyone has been going on about, only to find that you can’t get on with it and realise life is too short to make yourself finish it. So, neutral rather than pleasurable.

More engaging is the adjacent work by Lucy Cash, Artist in Residence at the Whitechapel, who has produced a multimedia piece exploring the idea of blind sight. When visiting the Whitechapel it’s easy to feel you may have missed something. Although it’s a pleasure to wander and not be too directed, they do not signpost well between gallery rooms.

★★★★★

Eleanor MacFarlane

Gerard Byrne. A State of Neutral Pleasure is at the Whitechapel Gallery from 17th January until 8th March 2013. For further information or to book visit the gallery’s website here.

Related Itemsreview

More in Art

Feminine Power: The Divine to the Demonic at the British Museum

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More

Cornelia Parker at Tate Britain

★★★★★
James White
Read More

Our Time on Earth at the Barbican

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More

Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirror Rooms at Tate Modern

★★★★★
Cristiana Ferrauti
Read More

Walter Sickert at Tate Britain

★★★★★
Sophia Moss
Read More

Dopamine Land

★★★★★
Sarah Bradbury
Read More

Sony World Photography Awards

★★★★★
Sophia Moss
Read More

Raphael at the National Gallery

★★★★★
Umar Ali
Read More

Inspiring Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts at the Wallace Collection

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap
  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Albert Adrià reopens Enigma on 7 June as a “fun-dining” restaurant and cocktail bar
    Food & Drinks
  • Paolo Nutini at the 100 Club
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Crimes of the Future: Three new clips from David Cronenberg’s dystopian body horror film
    Cannes
  • The Father and the Assassin at the National Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Plan 75
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Decision to Leave (Heojil Kyolshim)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • November (Novembre)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Forever Young (Les Amandiers)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • “Ruben is wonderful at picking holes in our behaviour and our egos”: Woody Harrelson, Ruben Östlundand and cast at the Triangle of Sadness press conference
    Cannes Film Festival 2022
  • Summer Scars (Nos Cérémonies)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Decision to Leave (Heojil Kyolshim)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Emergency
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Men
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Triangle of Sadness
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Aftersun
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Wall at Hoxton Hall | Live review
Neon Trees at Hoxton Square | Live review