MARINA ABRAMOVIC AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY, LONDON 2023
MEMORABLE, VIOLENT, DISTURBING, SOME EXHIBITIONS STAY WITH YOU.The first retrospective of a woman artist to be held at The Royal Academy HAD IT ALL.
Pain
Anger
Danger
Fear
Self harm
Brutality
Grief
Loss
Endurance
Courage
Sorrow
Acceptance
Beauty
Joy
Peace
Visitors were invited to walk through the arch.
Balkan Baroque
The pile of beef bones at the Royal Academy, recreating the original work first shown at the Venice Biennale in 1997, was fake - a concession to modern sensibilities, to hygiene or to Health and Safety regulations? Less smelly, bur undoubtably a disappointing substitution.
The exhibition documents Abramović’s best performances, on film and as re-enactments. Throughout the early part of my visit to the exhibition, I felt in a contest of endurance in thrall to the force of the artist’s huge personality and unrelenting drive. I felt almost crushed moving from room to room. The danger and the pain were like nothing I had experienced in an exhibition before. The artist was most definitely present, even through the medium of video and re-enactment. There was palpable relief in the audience as we progressed through to Abramović’s newer work. This is less intense, more New Age which comes almost as a relief, though on reflection it is, in parts, disappointingly bland. In the moment, it allows a gentle winding down between the intensity of Abramović at her very best and being spat out into the commercial glare of the exhibition shop.
A very personal review of my visit to one of the most powerful exhibitions I have seen. The courage shown by the artist is my foremost memory.
Consuelo Simpson is an artist and maker living and working in Hampshire. Her multidisciplinary practice is focused on seeking moments of enchantment and on reaching an accommodation with the world. She remains obsessed with string.