Another Minimalism @ Fruitmarket Gallery
With Another Minimalism, The Fruitmarket Gallery conducts a broad enquiry into the Light and Space art movement without drily staying within art historical boundaries, looking towards contemporary practitioners and a continuing and live line of influence.
Another Minimalism presents an ambitious and wide-ranging survey of the continuing influence of the Light and Space art movement that originated in the artistic communities of 1960s and 70s California. Avoiding the art historical preoccupation with differentiating between the various strands of minimalism that were emerging on the West Coast of America at the time, Another Minimalism instead offers an inclusive range of contemporary work by international artists.
On entering the gallery an acrid smell akin to burning sugar permeates the air. This subtly altered atmosphere lingers with a sweetness that tends to cloy, while works of plexiglass, powder coated aluminium and polished stainless steel extend their perfectly geometric forms with an air of slick obstinacy.
Counter to these sultry objects, an antagonistic interplay occurs between projectors, coloured gels and fluorescent tubes, all emitting particular qualities of light. The after-image of one work bleeds readily into the next. Olafur Eliasson’s Ephemeral afterimage star makes it known via the exhibition label that the work includes ‘a two minute break to allow your eyes to adjust.’ While Ann Veronica Janssens’ Yellow Rose, an acidic yellow seven pointed star projected into an artificial mist goes as far as to list ‘artificial lights’ on its humorously pedantic exhibition label.
Negotiating issues of control is a central theme of this exhibition. It is evident that many of the works depend upon the ability of the gallery space to provide optimum control conditions, enabling the artists to conduct their scrupulous investigations without interference from chaotic external environments. Such an indefatigably meticulous approach is akin to scientific observation within a laboratory. After all, Isaac Newton conducted his own pioneering optical experiments simply using the sun and his own eye. Compelled to retire to a darkened room, a rainbow-like after image danced before his eyes for days.
Another Minimalism at Fruitmarket Gallery, until 21 Feb