Golem, 2017
Photo: Christoph Harringer
Collection
Glazed ceramic, plinth (wood, screws, plasticine, wax)
18 x 28 x 30 cm (ceramic)
111.5 x 50 x 50 cm (plinth)
Gelatin’s practice can largely be understood by their belief in art as capitalism’s counter-concept.[1] Art’s specific form of “uselessness” is often exaggerated in their works in anarchic and hyperbolic enactments of the nonsensical, their ongoing pursuit of pleasure-based experiences, and their engagement in seemingly pointless activities. Inasmuch as each of their projects represents another refusal to live and be governed by the terms of capitalist production, their 2017 exhibition New York Golem arguably derives much of its meaning from the literal production of useless offspring spawned from their enactment of repeated gestures of material procreation with lumps of clay. Rather than risk exhaustion, the repetition of this act underpins the crux of their resistance. Its outcomes were celebrated: each ceramic sculpture which emerged from the process was elevated by the support of its own idiosyncratic plinth. Where the ceramics themselves are vaguely similar in form, defined primarily by the negative or positive forms of the protrusions and intrusions made by the group’s members, the plinths vary radically in construction, material and style: a stack of old chair parts sits adjacently to a stand formed from plasticine, and another made from neon acrylic. All in all, over 40 clay sculptures, “molded by gelatin's genitals and sometimes through the behind,” filled the space at Greene Naftali, raised to a level that made them “ready for a closer inspection.”[2]
The reiterative drive or impulse which lay behind this show was not dissimilar from those which inspired the group’s 2007 Coney Island beach project, The Dig Cunt and 2013 performance and sculpture, Loch. Both durational works, these were based (respectively) around the mindless activities of digging and refilling holes in the sand, and carving spaces into a large polystyrene block. In particular, Jan Verwoert has drawn comparisons between Gelatin’s work and principles of idleness, thereby countering a frequency of remarks that situate them in the legacy of Viennese Actionism. He views their practice as a form of praxis, to the extent that “[p]raxis is an act that draws its own joy, its own drive and its social relevance from within, beyond all imperatives and necessities. That does not mean it has to be autonomous. That is the wrong criterion. Rather, the crucial point is that praxis is an activity that occurs in full awareness of the fact that it need not have occurred at all at any time, that it is indistinguishable from being idle. Praxis is an activity in the spirit of idleness. In this respect, Gelatin could be regarded as being neither activists nor absurdists, but eremitic idlers devoted to the potentiality of a praxis beyond the bounds of all necessity.”[3] Whilst simultaneously and physically demonstrating an equally Gelatin-like mode that roots art in the realisation of desire, it is in this vain that New York Golem and its constitutive works contribute to their ongoing exploitation and occupation of art as a realm in which to produce and enact that which is “obviously unuseful…” reasoning, “the longer you do something obviously unuseful, the more it makes sense.”[4] –Elsa Gray
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpWJEAK6Gk4
[2] https://www.gelitin.net/projects/New-York-Golem/
[3] Jan Verwoert, “The Birth of Praxis out of the Spirit of Idleness: On Gelatin and the Hole,” in Gelatin: Loch
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpWJEAK6Gk4
18 x 28 x 30 cm (ceramic)
111.5 x 50 x 50 cm (plinth)
Gelatin’s practice can largely be understood by their belief in art as capitalism’s counter-concept.[1] Art’s specific form of “uselessness” is often exaggerated in their works in anarchic and hyperbolic enactments of the nonsensical, their ongoing pursuit of pleasure-based experiences, and their engagement in seemingly pointless activities. Inasmuch as each of their projects represents another refusal to live and be governed by the terms of capitalist production, their 2017 exhibition New York Golem arguably derives much of its meaning from the literal production of useless offspring spawned from their enactment of repeated gestures of material procreation with lumps of clay. Rather than risk exhaustion, the repetition of this act underpins the crux of their resistance. Its outcomes were celebrated: each ceramic sculpture which emerged from the process was elevated by the support of its own idiosyncratic plinth. Where the ceramics themselves are vaguely similar in form, defined primarily by the negative or positive forms of the protrusions and intrusions made by the group’s members, the plinths vary radically in construction, material and style: a stack of old chair parts sits adjacently to a stand formed from plasticine, and another made from neon acrylic. All in all, over 40 clay sculptures, “molded by gelatin's genitals and sometimes through the behind,” filled the space at Greene Naftali, raised to a level that made them “ready for a closer inspection.”[2]
The reiterative drive or impulse which lay behind this show was not dissimilar from those which inspired the group’s 2007 Coney Island beach project, The Dig Cunt and 2013 performance and sculpture, Loch. Both durational works, these were based (respectively) around the mindless activities of digging and refilling holes in the sand, and carving spaces into a large polystyrene block. In particular, Jan Verwoert has drawn comparisons between Gelatin’s work and principles of idleness, thereby countering a frequency of remarks that situate them in the legacy of Viennese Actionism. He views their practice as a form of praxis, to the extent that “[p]raxis is an act that draws its own joy, its own drive and its social relevance from within, beyond all imperatives and necessities. That does not mean it has to be autonomous. That is the wrong criterion. Rather, the crucial point is that praxis is an activity that occurs in full awareness of the fact that it need not have occurred at all at any time, that it is indistinguishable from being idle. Praxis is an activity in the spirit of idleness. In this respect, Gelatin could be regarded as being neither activists nor absurdists, but eremitic idlers devoted to the potentiality of a praxis beyond the bounds of all necessity.”[3] Whilst simultaneously and physically demonstrating an equally Gelatin-like mode that roots art in the realisation of desire, it is in this vain that New York Golem and its constitutive works contribute to their ongoing exploitation and occupation of art as a realm in which to produce and enact that which is “obviously unuseful…” reasoning, “the longer you do something obviously unuseful, the more it makes sense.”[4] –Elsa Gray
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpWJEAK6Gk4
[2] https://www.gelitin.net/projects/New-York-Golem/
[3] Jan Verwoert, “The Birth of Praxis out of the Spirit of Idleness: On Gelatin and the Hole,” in Gelatin: Loch
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpWJEAK6Gk4
gelitin is a group of four artists from Vienna, Austria. The group was formerly known as gelatin and changed their name in 2005. They are known for creating sensational art events in the tradition of Relational Aesthetics, often with a lively sense of humor.
Among their projects are a gigantic plush toy: a 55 meter tall pink rabbit on Colletto Fava (near Genoa, Italy), intended to remain there until 2025.[1][2] In November 2005, the group had a show at Leo Koenig, Inc. in New York, a project called Tantamounter 24/7. The project was a "gigantic, complex and very clever machine", according to the artists, which functioned as a kind of art-Xerox. The group erected a barrier blocking off one half of the space, locking themselves inside for one week, then asking visitors to insert items that they wanted copied into an opening in the barrier, which copies were then returned through another opening.[3]
This biography is from Wikipedia under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License.
Among their projects are a gigantic plush toy: a 55 meter tall pink rabbit on Colletto Fava (near Genoa, Italy), intended to remain there until 2025.[1][2] In November 2005, the group had a show at Leo Koenig, Inc. in New York, a project called Tantamounter 24/7. The project was a "gigantic, complex and very clever machine", according to the artists, which functioned as a kind of art-Xerox. The group erected a barrier blocking off one half of the space, locking themselves inside for one week, then asking visitors to insert items that they wanted copied into an opening in the barrier, which copies were then returned through another opening.[3]
This biography is from Wikipedia under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License.