CLAMPDOWN
ROBERT GORDON McHARG III
11-26 OCTOBER 2013
EXTENDED UNTIL 2 NOVEMBER DUE TO UNPOPULAR DEMAND
Live Art installation CLAMPDOWN, metamorphoses the Subway Gallery
into an underground bunker. Situationist McHarg asks the question
"What am I gonna do now? " looking at the metaphorical fable of the working ant versus the singing grasshopper. McHarg invites the viewers to peak through the curtains at socio-political issues like 'the clampdown
on scroungers','earn or learn', 'the right to do nothing',
as well as celebrating 150 years of barbed wire.
Bullet points:
"Live Art comes into being at the actual moment of encounter between artist and spectator even if they are not physically present, the artist sets up a situation in which the audience experience the work in a particular space and time, and the notion of ‘presence’ is key to the concerns of the work." © Joshua Sofaer
"Disrupting borders, breaking rules, defying traditions, resisting definitions, asking awkward questions and activating audiences, Live Art breaks the rules about who is making art, how they are making it and who they are making it for." © The Live Art Development Agency
The situationists asserted that the misery of social alienation and commodity fetishism were no longer limited to the fundamental components of capitalist society, but had now in advanced capitalism spread themselves to every aspect of life and culture. They resolutely rejected the idea that advanced capitalism's apparent successes—such as technological advancement, increased income, and increased leisure—could ever outweigh the social dysfunction and degradation of everyday life that it simultaneously inflicted.
The situationists believed that the shift from individual expression through directly lived experiences, or the first-hand fulfillment of authentic desires, to individual expression by proxy through the exchange or consumption of commodities , or passive second-hand alienation, inflicted significant and far-reaching damage to the quality of human life for both individuals and society.
