Ye Ye: Michelle Naismith and David Michael Clarke

The exhibition room at the top of the stairs reeks of privilege. Presided over by the elusive Madame X, trash-existentialist rock band Post-Gods, and a tanned guy in white pants, this is a party only very loosely attached to the rigours of the everyday. Whilst the fictitious glamour and allure of these guests fills the room with boundless splendour, it is the glittering philosophical touchstones which adorn the accompanying text that seal this exhibition's expensive air of exclusivity. With references to their namesake, Friedrich Nietzsche, and song titles such as Thinking About Nothing, the Post-God's sardonic folder of lyrics sits as a veritable wank-bank for the aspiring philosophy student. And in fact, masturbating may have a lot to do with this. For a long time sex has been theoretically entangled with the vagaries of performativity, and with Ye Ye the concept of camp, famously declared to be the greatest extension of the idea of 'life as theatre', is to the fore of both artists' work. This revisitation of 1960s French pop not only negotiates the 'hyper' worlds of fashion and music, but also unearths a new stage for the consideration of contemporary art practices. Art, as it sits at its franchised remove to the world, whether it vainly holds a mirror to, or merely mingles with, reality, is greatly illuminated by this comparison with superficial pop. This exhibition brilliantly delivers a series of pleasures, from the hollow joy of the philosophical 'in joke', to the reverie of the self-indulgent contemplation of art in itself. [Rosalie Doubal]