Anri Sala at the Serpentine Gallery...

Although not on the list of galleries to visit, I wanted to write a review of Anri Sala’s current exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park which I visited last Thursday. Sala is a leading contemporary artist who uses film, video, and especially sound in his work – with most pieces revealing his personal experiences/thoughts on issues such as social and political change. All the work exhibited at the Serpentine is centred on performance, in particular musical performance.
My first impression on entering the gallery was one of confusion – whether this had anything to do with the dimmed lights (after being underground on the tube, and walking in the dark to the actual gallery itself there was a distinct lack of natural light...) or the fact that you could hear a faint sound of music coming from another room of the exhibition, I can’t tell. With all the rooms in darkness with only the music playing on loop, personally I felt a little lost and disorientated, which further added to the intrigue of what was through to the other rooms. What they did contain was simply a film in each – when one ended, another in the next room began, so it was like a trail around the gallery, making you feel as a viewer not only part of the work, but also part of the jumble of various people you found yourself moving around with. Feeling part of the work itself and also part of a group (so engaging in a shared happening) was one aspect which I felt really worked in its favour in respect of creating an `experience’ to remember when you left the gallery.
All of the films contained the song ‘Shall I Stay or Shall I Go’ by the Clash, played on an accordion, music box and drums and therefore had very very little speech in them. The use of repetition was very interesting, because although it was on loop incessantly playing again and again, this didn’t distract at all as to what was going on visually in the films. Another of the things which I felt was fantastic was how the gallery space was used. Despite at first glance only being empty rooms, when the film started, the room seemed to be filled up with sound, shadows and light and most importantly life - that is to say the room was brought to life with the films. One thing which I only noticed very late on was the fact that the artist had used the pattern found on the barrel organs score on the walls, creating cut outs where if you looked carefully you could see different pieces of the parkland outside. This really bound together the space the art was in with its surroundings, as well as translating the music into a different materiality.
As I said at the start, I did arrive feeling slightly disorientated, and strangely enough I left in a slightly affected mood – there really was something very affecting about the exhibition as a whole which I can’t put my finger on precisely. For this reason, since getting back and thinking about the exhibition, I have read up on Sala as an artist and more about the works which were on view and would really like to go back again. I wonder if the ‘experience’ would be any different or any less intriguing – but surely, since the curiosity to visit again is there, I think Sala has done his job in creating a body of work which people can not only relate too, but also question.