Pondering

Greetings from the future… Wish you were here!

Franco Brambilla, Illustrator.

ALIENS IN VINTAGE POSTCARDS

Alien Nation at ICA, London 2006.

‘Alien Nation’ uses Sci–Fi and Aliens to represent innermost fears, drawing on a collection of contemporary artists who use science fiction to express current political problems with particular reference to race. To bring the collection together, the familiar words Alien¹ and Nation² are utilised, but their meanings have been deconstructed.

The exhibition evolved out of a discussion between the independent curator, John Gill and the Gilane Tawadros, Director of the Institute of International Visual Arts for inIVA, London. They talked about 1950’s Sci–Fi films that they had seen as children and John Gill’s particular childhood fear of the BBC television programmes the ‘Quatermass Experiment’ (1953) and ‘Quatermass and the Pit’ (1957). These he later realised exemplified people’s fears of those different to us. The idea for the exhibition theme, which was to hinge around present day fear of minorities and immigrants, grew from considering contemporary artists who use Sci–Fi iconography – in particular Yinka Shonibare’s Dysfunctional Family (1999) which is slightly reminiscent of the cult Sci-Fi film ‘E.T. The Extra – Terrestrial’ (1982).

Another voice was needed. Jens Hoffmann,Director of the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco at the California College of the Arts and Director of Exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, was approached and asked to join them. The exhibition as a collection evolved, with the decision to use both available contemporary works and to commission pertinent new work.

The curators have emulated the Orientalism theory of West on Non–West but in this case have evoked the perception of humans to Extra–Terrestrial beings. In taking Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism and relating it to the idea of the exhibition, plays on the idea of representation, by using the Sci–Fi iconographic world in substitution for the real world. Displaying the collection in this way has laid out the world to provide meaning and “construction of otherness to the manufacture of national identity and imperial purpose.”⁴

The exhibition successfully highlights the direct relationship to problems between cultures and politics and the dilemmas people are having about their national identity. It exemplifies the human desire to archive and to gather signs to create meaning. “As the twentieth century moves to a close, there has been a gathering awareness nearly everywhere of the lines between cultures, the divisions and differences, which not only allows us to discriminate one culture from another, but also enable us to see the extent to which cultures are humanly made structures of both authority and participation, benevolent in what they exclude and demote.”⁵

Critics have traditionally derided the ICA as a place where “wrongness and experimentation reigns”⁶.‘Alien Nation’ at first appears to fit this view, but on closer study it is evident that the curators have cleverly used the ICA as the institution to present a collection which directly confronts the problems of racism, intolerance and ignorance through contemporary art works and popular Sci-Fi culture. If we agree that “the museum plays a unique ideological role. By means of its objects and all that surrounds them, the museum transforms ideology in the abstract into belief”⁷ then this collection at the ICA exemplifies this. The exhibition title, ‘Alien Nation’ is a metaphor for National Identity – drawing on a dual meaning for the collection highlighted by Edward Said’s theory of Imperialism: “In all these areas – gender, class and race – criticism has correctly focused upon the institutional forces in modern western societies that shape and set limits on the representation of what are considered essentially subordinate beings; thus representation itself has been characterized as keeping the subordinate subordinate, the inferior inferior.”⁸

Science Fiction novels in the 19^th and 20^th Century highlighted fears of attack by alien invaders whilst today these novels have been transformed by our media into the reporting of nuclear weapons testing , terrorist attacks and illegal immigrants. The ‘9/11’ terrorist attacks, and subsequent discrimination against Muslim Communities worldwide endorses our belief that we are being “invaded by new (illegal) aliens, bombed by dark (Muslim) forces, and contaminated by new (religious) viruses.”⁹ A Harpers Magazine article which stated: “in America 39% of the population believed that US Muslims should wear special ID to be identified as Muslims…”¹⁰convinced Jens Hoffmann that they were correct in addressing these issues through the ‘Alien Nation’ Exhibition.

The theatrical assembly of the collection is representational in framing its concept of otherness. The collection enlightens by portraying a different view of the world with the words ‘Alien’ and ‘Nation’ juxtaposed. The museum space is carefully utilised and while some of the collection is aesthetically pleasing, much of it is just ephemeral – Hew Locke’s sculptures are colourful, gleaming with jewels, gold and silver and are very beautiful in a slightly tacky way. The immediate visual impact lures people with a false sense of security. As they get drawn towards the light they see that there is something quite dark going on in these works. His commission was to play on the fear, paranoia, hatred and anxiety people now feel about religion, ethnicity and politics. The mixture of weapons and babies are used as a means of expressing contemporary events covering a wide range of issues e.g. Iraq, the Congo and slavery. Apart from these sculptures the collection does not embody Carol Duncan’s¹¹ view that a museum should be almost like a spiritual, ritual experience.

The collection does however follow the 19^th Century ideal “that the first responsibility of a public art museum is to enlighten and improve its visitors morally, socially, and politically.”¹² This contradicts Benjamin Ives Gilman’s 20^th Century view that once works of art “are put in museums, exist for one purpose only: to be looked at as things of beauty…”¹³‘Alien Nation’ as a collection achieves both, but visitor response is still determined by their education, culture, class most especially here as the topic is both current and contentious. The conventional view is that works should “above all be viewed one-by-one”¹⁴ however the curators deliberately set out to achieve a cohesiveness through the strictly dictated theme, commissioning works to fit the exhibition rather than random assembly.

Normally it is the “museum’s primary function as housing objects in a neutral space within which they may be contemplated.”¹⁵‘Alien Nation’ is the opposite. Here the more usual labyrinth museum layout is broken up by having to pass through the ICA’s café to see the second half of the show. A perception is imposed on the spectator when entering an institution as to how to behave in a museum and to the objects in it however the vibrancy and unexpected strong wall colour makes you less afraid of raising your voice from the usual whisper in other institutions. The collection, enhanced by this striking use of vivid orange walls throughout, provokes the sensation of a time machine in which we are able to see past and future.

The 1950’s films and posters are interspersed with current works of art enabling “individuals to achieve liminal experience – to move beyond the psychic constraints of mundane existence, step out of time, and attain new, larger perspectives.”¹⁶ The viewer identity dissolves because of the disorientation caused by the mixture of work – Eric Wesley successfully manipulates the usual constraints of the institution space in Untitled (Home Base) (2006) allowing the spectator to view the gallery through a security camera. The flying balloon, accompanied by a CTTV camera, allows the spectator to feel the sense of alienation and the inkling of being watched or spied on. You are in-between two states: place and people. The usual social gallery space has been changed it is now unfamiliar - alien. The viewer is unsure whether they are the viewer or the subject of the gaze. We how have the “ability to see without being seen confirmed one’s separation from the world, and constituted at the same time a position of power.”¹⁷

The early science fiction novel, War of the Worlds (1898) written by H. G. Wells describes an alien attack on earth. Realism is most evident in extracts in the Exhibition from the audio broadcast by Orson Welles in 1938 which frightened many listeners into believing an invasion was actually taking place and being broadcast to the nation. Bringing the book to life forced an experience of the real upon an unsuspecting mass audience. 

In ‘Alien Nation’ there is a blurred line between the artificial and the real. The representational surface is cult–like with more sinister meanings hiding beneath, from finding that “Enlightenment in the labyrinth means detachment from the world of common experience and material need.”¹⁸ Even though the world outside the gallery space is different to the space inside the gallery, the subject matter is the same. The thing that allows us to differentiate is how the institution presents it to make this transition. Here the collection alone is not enough to grasp the concept of the exhibition, as text panels, films, radio broadcastings and catalogues are needed to support and inform the idea of bringing the real fear of otherness into the exhibition. This is a global theme, but one that might take away from the idea of national identity. This is apparent in Mario Ybarra Jr’s Brown and Proud (2006) hybrid graffiti mural to Star Wars (1977), Sci-Fi and politics. The confusion of his Mexican heritage being intertwined with American popular culture can be seen. 

The collection is questioning the “concept dealing with the past that might be already at our disposal or not at our disposal, an achievable concept of the archive. It is a question of the future itself, the question of a response, of a promise and a responsibility for tomorrow.”¹⁹ The curators have exploited the fact that Sci–Fi is a Western ideology e.g. comic books, films and television programmes etc… which could raise the question: Why is there such fear around the word ‘alien’ when these ideas are addressed freely in education and popular culture and totally embraced because of the general viewpoint which declares ‘the right to know’. The alien, now almost rendered non-specific, embodies fears in general of the unknown.

The collection has to be read in a specific language e.g. the exhibition poster that parodies the movie The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). It is a cult science fiction film about a town’s population being replaced by alien carbon copies. The poster exemplifies the theory of semiotics with the running people becoming the signifier or the form, fear or mass hysteria as the signified which then equals the sign i.e. the collection. 

“There is first the authority of the author – someone writing out the process of society in an acceptable institutionalized manner, observing conventions, following patterns, and so forth. Then there is the authority of the narrator, whose discourse anchors the narrative in recognizable, and hence existentially referential, circumstances. Last, there is what might be called the authority of the community, whose representative most often is the family but also is the nation, the specific locality and the concrete historical moment.”²⁰ If we use this theory, then the national press is the author documenting the news of these immigrants and minorities in society, the artist is the narrator interpreting current world affairs and the curators become the authority of the community who feel it is their duty to have this work displayed to the nation to highlight this moment in time.

‘Alien Nation’ defines the fear of illegal immigrants and minorities in a specific way using the stereotypical images of Sci–Fi to appeal to a wider audience but exposing them to a deeper meaning. Whilst setting “the world up as a picture.”³¹ it still allows the viewer to form an opinion but not in an overt way. Bigoted hidden views and fears could have been exploited more by the curators in both the collection and the advertising by using mass media to treat the objects with an apparent realism which could have evoked a more radical response from the viewer.

By using the Alien as a sign – little, green men – the curators have now conjured a new sign for this word – an immigrant. The collection succeeds by not forcing complete detachment from the outside world by relating real life to what is shown. The experience is a result of the structure of the collection. It is fun and light – hearted but conveys the serious message of fear of immigrants, minorities and terrorism in the ‘Alien Nation’.

Reference List

¹ alien ● adj. 1 a (often foll. by to) unfamiliar; not in accordance; unfriendly, hostile; repugnant (army discipline was alien to him; struck an alien note). b different or separated. 2 from a foreign country (help from alien powers). 3 of or relating to beings from other worlds. 4 Bot. (of a plant species) introduced from elsewhere and naturalized. ● n. 1 a foreigner. 2 a being from another world. 3 an alien species [from Latin alienus ‘belonging to another’] □ alienness n. alienable adj. Law able to be transferred to new ownership. □ alienability n.

² nation n. a community of people of mainly common descent, history, language, etc., forming a state or inhabiting a territory. [from Latin natio] □ nationhood n.

³ MICHELLE, TIMOTHY (2004). ‘Orientalism and the Exhibitionary Order’ in D. Preziosi & C. Farago (eds.), Grasping the World: the idea of the museum, UK: Ashgate, Aldershot. p. 442

⁴ SAID, EDWARD (1994) Culture and Imperialism.UK: Vintage. p. 15

⁵ TEEMAN, TIM(2006) Close Encounters of the Nerd Kind Times Online 28^th November 2006 available from <http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article1088188.ece>

⁶ DUNCAN, CAROL and WALLACH, ALAN (1978) The Museum of Modern Art as Late Capitalist Ritual: An Iconographic Analysis Marxist Perspectives. p. 28

⁷ SAID, EDWARD (1994) Culture and Imperialism.UK: Vintage. p. 95

⁸ FALCONER, MORGAN (2006) Aliens in our midst Times Online 11^th November 2006 available from <http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/whats_on/listings/article628442.ece>

⁹ LAWSON, MARK (2006) Front Row BBC Radio 4

¹⁰ DUNCAN, CAROL and WALLACH, ALAN (1978) The Museum of Modern Art as Late Capitalist Ritual: An Iconographic Analysis Marxist Perspectives. p. 29

¹¹ DUNCAN,CAROL (1995) The Art Museum as Ritual in The Art of Art History UK: Oxford University Press. p 482

¹² DUNCAN,CAROL (1995) The Art Museum as Ritual in The Art of Art History UK: Oxford University Press. p 482

¹³ DUNCAN, CAROL and WALLACH, ALAN (1978) The Museum of Modern Art as Late Capitalist Ritual: An Iconographic Analysis Marxist Perspectives. p. 29

¹⁴ DUNCAN, CAROL and WALLACH, ALAN (1978) The Museum of Modern Art as Late Capitalist Ritual: An Iconographic Analysis Marxist Perspectives. p. 29

¹⁵ DUNCAN,CAROL (1995) The Art Museum as Ritual in The Art of Art History UK: Oxford University Press. p 477

¹⁶ MITCHELL, TIMOTHY (2004). ‘Orientalism and the Exhibitionary Order’ in D. Preziosi & C. Farago (eds.), Grasping the World: the idea of the museum, UK: Ashgate, Aldershot. p. 457

¹⁷ DUNCAN, CAROL and WALLACH, ALAN (1978) The Museum of Modern Art as Late Capitalist Ritual: An Iconographic Analysis Marxist Perspectives. p. 45 

¹⁸ DERRIDA, JACQUES (1995) Archive Fever. USA: John Hopkins University Press. p. 36

¹⁹ SAID, EDWARD (1994) Culture and Imperialism.UK: Vintage. p. 92

²⁰ MITCHELL, TIMOTHY (2004). ‘Orientalism and the Exhibitionary Order’ in D. Preziosi & C. Farago (eds.), Grasping the World: the idea of the museum, UK: Ashgate, Aldershot. p.446

Jean–Baptiste Oudry, The Dead Wolf, 1721.

A backdrop of a cold stone wall, with strands of ivy cascading down it, is the setting for Oudry’s oil painting The Dead Wolf. It might not seem like an exciting location but do not be fooled, this is a painting of full of the sensation of the moments one feel and the images one might see after the hunt!

At the bottom left hand side of the canvas are two very handsome dogs tied together with a rope. One looks outwards, to the left, his eyes not meeting the viewer – but he is he perhaps looking towards his unseen master. The other looks to the dead wolf – as if on guard. The dogs’ black, white and brown coats glisten, whilst their faces look tired but still alert. The wolf, large and dominating, on the right hand side of the canvas, lies dead on the floor, its one eye fixed on the viewer. The hunter’s satchel lies by its side.

Above the dogs and the wolf is a table laden with succulent food – velvety peaches fresh off the tree, piled in a basket beside an overfilled game pie decorated with fleur-de-lis which is resting on a crisp, white, crumpled cloth. In front of the basket is a bunch of juicy grapes draped casually across the tabletop, tumbling over the edge. Next to the pie, a peach cut in half reveals its succulent centre. Leaning against the pie, and besides the peach, is a melon. This too is cut open, revealing its bright orange, ripe and exotic centre – you can taste it!

Leaning against the table stands the hunter’s gun, slim and fine – an elegant weapon. The gun’s decorative silver embellishments, gleaming in the sunlight, camouflage its menace. At the side of the gun’s butt is a porcelain bowl full of enticing figs lying in a shimmering pool of water. Lastly on the table, is a platter on which two decanters have been placed. One contains ruby red wine, the other water. Two glasses wait expectantly for a drinker – the hunter to quench his thirst from the kill.

This painting exudes its wealth through shapes and colours executed in perfect harmony. A natural scene, painted with such detail by the fluid and rhythmic controlling of the paint. The artist pays great attention to the light which embodies the sense of relief following from the excitement of the hunt. In the distance, away from the stone wall and table, lies the forest now peacefully bathed in gentle light from the sunset after the foray which has taken place in the oh so recent past. It is its composition, the spoil from the hunt, which turns this non dramatic setting into a dramatic one.

This piece was written for - Assignment: Write a review in the style of Diderot of an 18th century French painting in a London museum collection – there are plenty at the Wallace Collection (2-3 pages double spaced).