23 September - 13 December 2009, 176 Project Space
Pete and Repeat, a title taken from Bruce Nauman’s 1987 video ‘Clown Torture’, currently at 176 Project Space, is an exhibition of works from the Zabludowicz collection. A combination of painting, photography, installation, sculpture and video are used to illustrate the exhibition’s theme of ‘repetition.’ To many, this may seem a broad theme for an exhibition, with a wide variety of contemporary works capable of fitting into this category. However, the exhibition asks the viewer to question originality, mass production and the authenticity of art today. Does repetition and reproduction destroy originality and uniqueness, characteristics that are so often associated with art? Can anything ever be the same twice?
From Elad Lassry’s ‘Three Variations on a Bob’ to Richard Prince’s ‘Four Women Looking in the Same Direction’, we are constantly reminded that pattern and repetition are a frequent occurrence in everyday life, and we feel urged to look for this repetition in our own familiar environment.
Many of the works distract our minds with the query of whether this is art, or mass production, whilst persuading us to investigate the space within the gallery; a former Methodist chapel. Ai Weiwei and Serge Spitzer’s ninety-six Chinese porcelain vases look like common, mass produced white porcelain vases on entering the room in which they are displayed. But as we wander around, we catch a glimpse of a pattern emerging on the opposite sides of the vases; inviting us to move around the space. No two vases are the same, the pattern differs in size from vase to vase, and we are inclined to think that maybe no two things can ever really be identical.
Sherrie Levine and Richard Prince are two artists who are united in conveying a very similar problem – when does art cease to be authentic? Sherrie Levine is famous for producing art that is ultimately copies of other works. Her remake of Duchamp’s urinal in a golden metallic cast, shown here in the exhibition, is no exception. The exhibition questions our perceived assumptions about originality and creativity.
Pete and Repeat offers us a multitude of diverse ways to look at repetition. Neil Hamon shows crime scenes photographed from different perspectives, and Keith Tyson allows us to play real-life spot the difference with his installation. Repetition is a broad theme, but one clever element of this exhibition, is its ability to enable people to question perceived ideas, and answer them from their own point of view. The works in the exhibition don’t have labels or captions residing next to them, to shed light on the viewer, instead, we are able to come to our own conclusions - but are still able to check details about the piece on exiting the room it is displayed in!
On the one hand, this is definitely too broad a theme, with repetition being too broad a term, to examine in one single exhibition. But it does start the ball rolling in thinking about the current state of the art world, the difference between repetition and mass production, and ideas of authenticity and originality. Is repetition just plain lazy? Is a copy still original art? And with the development of technology, is art moving away from the idea that there can be only one authentic original of a piece?
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