Living in an exceedingly inorganic world has pushed contemporary art towards the sphere of natural materials. In pursuit of the new, and in pursuit of the not seen, some artists now turn towards anti-technological methods and materials. Using natural substances, like hair, bones, fur, and feathers, more and more contemporary artists assert their visions of the new.
"Dead or Alive" at the Museum of Arts and Design is a smart and provocative survey of artists who work with materials found in the organic world. Viewed in the context of the technological capabilities displayed in much contemporary art (like Takashi Murakami's robot-nymphs and Jeff Koons' slick recent paintings), "Dead or Alive" is a refreshing return to pure objects and decoration, executed with the requisite intelligence of any contemporary work.
The exhibition is smart, playful, and occasionally grotesque. Inspired by the idea of curios and wunderkammers, "Dead or Alive" showcases mouse skeletons, butterflies, horsehair, and silkworm cocoons in the same spirit of curiosity and wonder.
Some works were exceptionally challenging, beautiful, or horrifying. One standout work in particular was Untitled (+/-) by Alistair Mackie. Two concrete platforms are placed parallel on the gallery floor, one supporting a loom, the other carrying a pile of small bones. It looks as though the loom has been stopped in the middle of weaving, and cashmere-looking fabric wraps around the spool underneath. Upon reading the wall text, the visitor learns that Mackie spent a year collecting barn owl pellets, removing the mouse fur and bones from within. He used the loom to make a fabric from the found fur, and the pile of bones correlates to the size of the woven fabric. Mackie's medium is his message, and this work perfectly exemplified the potential for the use of such unconventional natural materials in contemporary art.
Another memorable work was Tim Hawkinson's Point. At first glance, the sculpture resembles an arrowhead carved from white marble. But upon closer inspection, the viewer realizes that the piece is actually constructed from hundreds of egg shell pieces, turned inside out and glued together. The contrast between the object (a durable weapon), and the medium (delicate shells), is smart and beautiful.
Susie MacMurray's cave of rooster feathers is hypnotic and dizzying, and Damien Hirst's butterflies behind glass are surprisingly lovely (a trait not often to be expected from the enfant terrible YBA). Kate McGwire's shaped, twisting waterfall of pigeon feathers provokes a kind of breathless, still appreciation. Keith Bentley's Cauda Equina is an eerie form of Victorian mourning-- a widow's cape knotted from thousands of horse hairs collected from processing plants and displayed in the shape of the horse we may mourn.
The exhibition is marked by a number of acts of obsessive collecting, a given considering the materials are often feathers, small bones, insects, or spices. Such obsessiveness, though pervasive throughout, is best exemplified by the works of Lonneke Gordijn and Jochem Hendricks. For her contribution, Gordijn made a beautiful system of LED lights covered in dried dandelion seeds. The dandelion seeds were meticulously collected, dried, and then glued around the small LED bulbs in the shape they would take in their natural state-- poised and ready to be blown on and to grant your wishes. Hendricks' two pieces in the show, titled Hansi and Bubi, both collect the feathers of dead parakeets. The feathers are displayed in rings surrounding a small diamond-- a diamond formed from the compressed carbon of the carcasses of each dead bird.
With a pervasive attention to detail, and an obsessive relationship with their medium, the works in "Dead or Alive" all arouse curiosity or awe. It's an incredibly vibrant show, despite the number of pieces which were once (but are no longer) alive.
