Ugo Rondinone’s video work is a rousing celebration of the human spirit.
Last week America did something pretty unprecedented. I say ‘America’ as if the entire population had a hand in the decision, but of course the reality is only 27% voted for Donald Trump. A few days later I visited The Infinite Mix, a Hayward Gallery exhibition of immersive video-based works held in a labyrinthine ex office block on The Strand. It’s a brilliant, soulful collection, but I particularly want to talk about Ugo Rondinone’s work THANX 4 NOTHING. It’s based on a video of Beat poet John Giorno (Rondinone’s lover) reading his poem of the same name, which he wrote on his 70th birthday and it dominates one of the rooms.
Giorno is the consummate Beat charismatic. Charming, warm, rude and able to weave seamlessly the scatalogical or pharmaceutical alongside rhapsodies celebrations of life. (Soo Beat.) His poem in part mocks the form of the awards-ceremony acceptance speech, and his list of thank-yous runs down the length of the microphone lead and out the back door.
But this wasn’t pop art. It’s was a celebration of depth. The depth of human spirit.
As Giorno tips his hat to everyone (‘and everything’) from all his ex lovers that left him heartbroken, all the drugs that got him high and all the people who clapped at his poems (but gave nothing back) – and more besides – it was a reminder of the other America out there. The America that gave us Ginsburg, Dickinson, Walt Whitman and Joni Mitchell. The America that understands the bittersweet complexities of life, the fact there’s is no black or white, but a grey that is as radiant and varied as the rainbow that hides hidden within the shards of a rock crystal. (You just need to look for it.)
Sometimes Giorno’s words soar into the heavens, lifted by his overwhelming joy of life. Other times, they weigh heavy under a stone-hard cynicism.
Rondinone’s work brilliantly echoes this, presenting Giorno from all sides across four huge screens and numerous smaller monitors at feet level. The effect is a 21st century explosion of cubism, filtered through the language of high-celebrity culture, where the media’s hungry appetite for every last detail combines with the churning wheel of glamour, 24/7. Sometimes it felt like we were watching the speech of a national treasure; at other times a clown. But this wasn’t pop art. It’s was a celebration of depth. The depth of human spirit.
Giorno himself spells out the great paradox, however, when he eventually gets round to thanking America with an arch ‘thanks… 4 nothing.’ The Beats were always on the wrong side of the establishment. They made their voice heard despite it. Maybe there is a lesson for us all there?
Btw you can read the whole poem here. (Please do, it will be the best decision you do all day.)
What do you think? I’d love to hear in the comments below. And if you want to read more posts like this, please sign up to my blog.
ZEFFADELICA 