Shelf Life
‘Shelf Life’ is a very modern exhibition, in that it features a range of artists drawn from hither and yon, as an apparent result of globe-hopping by the show’s curators, Deborah Smith & Kate Fowle. The exhibition ‘presents 13 artists and collectives from Europe, South Africa, and north and South America who simultaneously embrace and challenge consumerism in their practice’.
The trouble with shows like this is that for the sceptical or enquiring gallery-goer, they raise some pretty basic questions for which answers are worryingly unavailable. We are entitled to ask, Why these artists? Why theses continents/countries? How did the curators decide where to go and whose work to consider? What the introduction to this exhibition lacks is a detailed chronology and transparent methodology that allows us to get a sense of where the curators are coming from and, indeed, where they went to…
…The foreword to the catalogue opens with a tedious and quite meaningless reference to September 11: ‘The ideas explored in the show have become particularly timely in the wake of September 11th and subsequent associated deliberations about global economy and its implications’. Though quite how the events of that day relate to this exhibition is not further explored or made clear… …Thus with ‘Shelf Life’ the process of ‘looking’ – so central and vital to the act of our engagement with visual art – becomes ‘just looking’ – an almost unconscious act we associate with disengaged or almost lackadaisical consumerism. Additionally, by placing the exhibits in the guise of consumer objects we are given yet more permission – this time to consider the extent to which this exhibition and its individual exhibits has/have any sort of shelf life. After all, the ultimate damning verdict of the consumer is that this or that product – perishable or not – is past its actual or metaphoric sell-by date…
...’Shelf Life’ features the work of a number of artists who are exhibiting in this country for the first time and whose names may not previously be familiar to us…
The above extracts are from an exhibition review by Eddie Chambers, "Shelf Life”, Art Monthly, London, Number 254, March 2002: 16-17