Crystal of Resistance is an extravaganza. It’s completely insane, a visual manifestation of internal conflict and overstimulation.
Artist Thomas Hirschhorn created the space at the Venice Biennale with that intention: “I want to produce a work that is reminiscent of the aesthetics of a ‘science-fiction’ b-movie film set, that derives from the aesthetics of a self-made rock-crystal museum, of the aesthetics of a ‘crystal-meth’ laboratory or that resembles the aesthetics of a cheaply decorated provincial disco.”
Hirschhorn’s trademark materials — foil, packing tape, photocopies — thread the concepts in the cavern together, the “light parts” and “shadow parts” as he calls them, which include love, philosophy, politics and aesthetics. Cell phones, televisions, tabloids, plastic patio furniture, Q-tips, mannequins, Barbie dolls, soda cans, and CDs also punctuate the installation, giving audiences an unusual experience with these universal materials.
Here’s more from Art in America:
Crystal of Resistance opens with absurdity: cell phones and oversize reproductions of them with crystals masking-taped on. The installation is seemingly an ode to the inevitable antiquation of our most ubiquitous, recent technological innovation. The installation proceeds-labyrinthlike-with hip-height walls of crystalline growths of taped-together plastic bottles, a balance of impossible magnitude, cheap technique and precise execution. The forms take an organic turn with the arrangement of Q-tips in the bottles, like protruding nerve endings. This bodily reference is elucidated in some of the goriest photos of war victims I have ever seen, taped floor to ceiling. Interspersed are other mass media, not quite labeled junk but treated as such. The work culminates in banners with text that repudiates the pretenses of opacity, but by this time the critique of clean institutional packaging is clear. The (astounding) success of Hirschhorn’s show results from the shifts of tone, form, ingenuity and surprise.
To get a sense of the work from the artist, here’s an enlightening little chat between Hirschhorn and the Tate’s Ben Lewis.
