Paul Emmanuel: Remnants
Curator: Lynne Cooney
808 Gallery, Boston
This show was interestingly constructed. I found that the pieces were emotionally charged and highly evocative, interesting and unique, as well as very humanist in their appeal. I found that the tattered “remnants” of the tapestries, the anti-monuments hung over the fields, were interesting in their fragile nature. I found that the commentary of Paul Emmanuel on the human condition, and the warring, destructive nature of humans as a species to be both interesting and poignant, though not over the top or overt.
I enjoyed his photography, and the interpreted photographic pieces of his words imprinted on overgrown battlefields. This commentary to me was an important and interesting piece on the perspective of war as a global event and pandemic, as the names of soldiers of every nationality were pressed into his body using casts he made of himself. The pieces were perfect in their fragility, as the nature of the human life is, and I found that that was exceedingly compelling. I also found that the descriptions given on the walls gave thorough context to the work without being overdone or too word-heavy.
I enjoyed how the length of the space was used in that you could work through the show from either side of the gallery, and feel as if you had gotten the whole story either way. It did not feel as if there was a scripted beginning, middle, and end phase, and I enjoyed that about the progression. I felt that it had a natural flow from either side, and that one could fully experience the pieces as they moved throughout the gallery space.
However, I found that this exhibition, given the huge space of the 808 Gallery at 808 Commonwealth Avenue, only partially took advantage of the whole space. I felt that though the banners hung along the whole gallery, the gallery felt sparsely inhabited. With just three of the casts in the center and two monitors, showing through photos and videos the construction of the pieces and what they looked like when installed in Johannesburg, that even with some of the photos of the interpretations of the pieces and a few preliminary sketches, the gallery felt a little empty.
That said, on the evening of the opening, they invited the musicians of Palaver Strings to come and play, and their performance, to my mind, completed the show. As their music filled the cavernous space of the former car show room, the banners seemed to come to life, and the whole space buzzed with the energy of the music mixing with the art and the gentle buzz of conversation. With this accompaniment, the work seemed more lifelike, even in its tattered form, and I truly wished that the work could be experienced with that performance within the space throughout the whole show, not just on opening night.
Overall, I would say that the show was a success, with interesting, international work uniquely exhibited in the cavernous space that is 808 Gallery. Though I would have made some minor improvements by including more work, the show was an interesting commentary nonetheless, and I would definitely recommend seeing it.
January 29, 2016
- Caitlyn Kenney