The Song Remains the Same

June 17 - July 17, 2021

Group show

Curated by Eugene Huston

 

The Song Remains the Same

the melody may change but the song remains the same


If Catastrophe is in its essence an unpredictable, devastating interruption of the natural rhythms of human community and continuity, it is, strictly speaking, impossible to speak of “permanent catastrophe.” But the phrase alerts us to a new understanding of catastrophe, one that emphasizes not only the “act of God” (whether literal or figural) but also the myriad ways that normal human order can contribute to violence, devastation and death. Some contemporary thinkers try to reveal the often-hidden connection between catastrophic chaos and so-called conventional forms of existence. In other words, catastrophe can be said to be permanent - it is a permanent possibility – once we understand how extreme threats to the human community cannot just come from “outside” but indeed from the very normal modes of functioning; the catastrophe is itself a sign of an omnipresent fragility. 

Warning sign of things to come (turn it over, turn it over)
It happened before, it will happen again
Hear my voice, Move my hair 
I move it around a lot,
But I don’t care (what I remember)
What I remember,
what I remember
what I remember
(What is it?).
Chris Frantz, David Byrne 1978



Jae Hoon Lee, Sunset in Whanganui, 2020

Natural catastrophes might be the best example of this idea of permanent catastrophe. For example, the terrible violence and destruction caused by the Christchurch earthquake in 2011 was the result of extreme forces of nature, but its effects can be traced back to normal living conditions in the area. In other words, the Quake as a catastrophic “event” was just a catalyst that exposed the more permanent failures and shortcomings tied to weak institutions, systemic economic inequality, urban organizations and the structures of political authority and responsibility. Failure to see the deep relations between catastrophe as an event, and the pathologies of “normal” human order, can only perpetuate the regular appearance of the unpredictable.

 



Yvonne Todd & Liz Maw, Self Portrait / Portrait with Face Peel, 2010

America is waiting for a message
of some sort or another
Takin’ it again
Again!
Again!
Well now… no, no… now, we ought to
be mad at the government not mad at
the people
America is waiting for a message of some sort or another.
 Brian Eno , David Byrne 1981
 

You are listening to a recording of the late John Bonham, the drummer of Led Zeppelin. In Steve Carr’s Song Remains the Same, the video loop shows tiny particles exploding into space from a beaten cymbal, forming themselves first into the Milky Way, out into a wider universe, and then quickly returning to the undulating disk. These cinematic images open up the hidden world through the slowing down of time, just like water drops shown exploding on a flower. John Hurrell writes that the work shows “repeating cycles of expanding and contracting energies, and the cosmic forces and vast spaces created by God’s drum kit.”.
 

   

Steve Carr, The Song Remains the Same, 2016


I remember
Ooh, how the darkness doubled
I recall
Lightning struck itself
I was listening
Listening to the rain
I was hearing
Hearing something else
Tom Verlaine 1977

Eugene Huston
Curator

 

 


Hye Rim Lee, TOKI and Dragon in the Balloons, 2008



Neil Pardington, Hall, 2003



Matt Hunt, Circuit Board Hell, 2019-21



Anne Noble, Piss Poles, Antarctica, Aurina #4, 2008



Rob Hood, Leap into the Driveway, 2010



Sanjay Theodore - Fascist Death Party (video still), 2019

 

Mark Braunias - 8 Fingers, 1998 Mark Braunias - Untitled (Study), 1998 Mark Braunias - Joob IV, 1998

 

Jae Hoon Lee courtesy Visions Gallery and Robert Heald Gallery
Yvonne Todd courtesy of McLeavey Gallery
Steve Carr courtesy of Michael Lett 

 

Installation Views



front gallery - installation view


front gallery - installation view



front gallery - installation view



front gallery - installation view



back gallery - installation view



back gallery - installation view



back gallery - installation view



back gallery - installation view

 

 

 

Details of works