Montage by John StezakerI went to Frith Street Gallery to see Annelies Strba’s My Life’s Dreams, then Susan Hiller in Tate Britain and John Stezaker at Whitechapel Gallery. Susan Hiller’s show was the most inspiring. I found almost every single piece fascinating to me. She used appropriation, text, language, video, and installation to articulate her concept. She collected images, objects, videos, and sounds and re-contextualised them. I was particularly impressed by her usage of languages. The Last Silent Movie used sound archives and had poetic death aesthetics while not losing anthropology documentary significance. The Witness was very playful with a dreamy ambience. Walking around hundreds of hang speakers with difference voices surrounding me gives a hallucinatory science fiction feel. Knowing the content of the voice as an encounter of UFOs, I was lost in the fairyland for a long time. Her Homages Series were highly conceptual pieces as well. Appropriation and language are something I have been interested and this show encourages me to explore future. Annelies Strba’s works are pretty and of good conceptual ideas. The exhibition space is so cool with untreated cement surroundings that I quite like. John Stezaker’s montage and appropriation are no doubt creative but going to the gallery is very similar to read his monogram books due to the exhibition size. I was surprised he keeps his art style for decades.
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