ART-TRIBUTE:Gilbert & George-The Art Exhibition

Gilbert & George (Gilbert Proesch and George Passmore), have long since been acknowledged icons of Contemporary Art. In 1967 they met as students at St Martin’s School of Art in London. By 1969 they were reacting against approaches to sculpture then dominant at St Martin’s, which they regarded as elitist and poor at communicating outside an art context.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Museum of Old and New Art Archive

Their strategy was to make themselves into sculpture, so sacrificing their separate identities to art and turning the notion of creativity on its head. Working as a pair and presenting themselves as ‘living sculpture’, incorporating themselves into their art, setting out to provoke their viewers, making them think and question conventions and taboos. Known for their bold statements, as much as their mannequin-like public personas, they formulated their core principals in a 1969 manifesto, The Laws of Sculptors: “I Always be smartly dressed, well groomed relaxed and friendly polite and in complete control. 2 Make the world to believe in you, and to pay heavily for this privilege. 3 Never worry assess discuss or criticize but remain quiet respectful and calm. 4 The lord chisels still, so don’t leave your bench for long”. In 1971 Gilbert & George made their first “Photo-pieces”, which remained their dominant form of expression. They gradually shifted the emphasis of their subject-matter away from their own experiences of life. Instead they concentrated on the inner-city reality that confronted them on the street and on the structures and feelings that inform life such as religion, class, royalty, sex, hope, nationality, death, identity, politics and fear. “Gilbert & George: The Art Exhibition”, the artists’ first Australian retrospective, comprises 97 pictures, made from 1970 to 2014. Gilbert & George have selected the works included in the large-scale presentation and designed the exhibition layout. Their 2014 series “Scapegoating Pictures” are included. These are “Opposed to bigotry of all forms”, according to London’s White Cube Gallery, which has represented the pair since 2000. The new pictures explore religious fundamentalism, paranoia and surveillance, with Gilbert & George depicted as skeletons and in red suits or hoodies, incorporating images of discarded metal canisters used for recreational nitrous inhaling, which the pair collected on morning walks near their East London home.

Info: Curators:Nicole Durling, Olivier Varenne, Gilbert & George, Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) , 655 Main Road, Berriedale, Hobart, Duration: 28/11/15-28/3/16, Days & Hours: Wed-Mon 10:00-18:00, www.mona.net.au