When: Friday 17th February 2012
Where: Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre
Why: The poster lured me in.
So, like, you know Spike Milligan? ‘I told you I was ill’
written on his gravestone Spike Milligan? Yeah? Well imagine a room full of
stuff like that, and you’ve got David Shrigley’s latest exhibition. That’s not
a diss, by the way, but a compliment. I’m a big Milligan fan, and now a big
Shrigley fan as well. How nice for everyone involved.
Shrigley has said about this exhibition that ‘the responses
I would like are laughter, intrigued confusion and disquiet.’ Definitely got
the disquiet part right, thanks to the big fishbowl full of five years’ worth
of toenail clippings. Apparently this came about thanks to a thought about how
much of ourselves is cut off over our lives, which is pretty representative of
the whole show – little bits of creativeness chopped off and displayed at
random in a big white space. The laughter is taken care of in pretty much every
corner of every room, and particularly for me in front of a bell with a plaque
beside it which read ‘Not to be rung again until Jesus returns’, which for
reasons I can’t completely fathom reduced me to long-lasting chuckles. The
intrigued confusion appeared before me in the faces of my fellow adventurers as
I shuffled on hands and knees through a tiny door in the wall, away from a
kingdom of creepy crawlies (I just followed a kid through the hole, it seemed
like the best option to me).
According to the little guidebook, Shrigley sees ‘hugely
important things as incredibly trivial and unimportant things as having massive
significance’, which explains the row of sizeable ceramic eggs along a dividing
wall, and a shopping list engraved on a gravestone. Another favourite was the
big cup of tea, large enough to fit a basketball in but which actually
contained real (and very cold) tea. I stuck my finger in to test it so I know.
I push boundaries.
My mate very much enjoyed the taxidermy projects dotted
around the place, including the famous ‘I’m dead’ dog, a headless ostrich (ooh,
thought-provoking), and a similarly headless squirrel holding his own head
instead of a nut in his tiny paws. You do end up asking what is it, why has he
done that, what does that mean, as you wonder round.
The illustrations and paintings were my highlights, and seem
like an insight into what a bored man left alone in a school art department
might come out with. Which is brilliant. It’s stream of consciousness art,
which makes for an interesting trip around the gallery. If you could step into
the mind of a bit of a weird dude and have a wander round, this is what it
would be like. He displays statements (‘It’s ok to run away from your
problems’), innuendo (‘Tits’), and some one-liners that my uncle would love.
It’s temporary, cheeky, quirky and making fun. It was a bit of an adventure and
I had a cracking time. The exhibition is on until May, so I suggest you go and
have a look at it - immediately if possible.
Brixpig x
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