Jan Tichy - All Monsters - MOCAD
This was my first experience with Mike Kelly’s Mobile Homestead, and Jan Tichy for that matter. I went into this exhibition without knowing much about it at all, I think a very appropriate way to approach any piece of art. I wanted to have this introduction to the space and the artist to be entirely dependent on the formal qualities.
Overtaking the entirety of the gallery, Jan Tichy creates an environment in which the audience becomes highly aware of space and timelines. As you enter the gallery, you feel as though you’re walking into a typical suburban ranch style home. Quickly you question if you’ve missed the entrance, perhaps you’ve slipped between the walls instead, stuck in-between the homely and familiar and its dark underbelly. It’s as if you’re behind the facade of an experience or looking into a cross-section of reality. The droning of electrical currents and HVAC are paired with low-fi poetic speech in a space that pulses and ungulates with bleeding light from the various projections and the gallery’s own exit sign illuminating and emphasizing the dimensionality of the space. Copper pipes snake through the space, adding to the themes of “infrastructure” and “building”, lit only in fleeting moments.
This exhibition takes time to really experience and navigate, projections change and you catch these really nice moments in which you feel as if you have just happened to be in the right place at the right time to see which was highly appreciated. It’s fairly understated, you really have to just wonder through the rooms and notice. This added to some sort of feeling of hostility or disconnect, I nearly tripped on pipes in dark rooms and I worry I actually missed some portion of the show. Frustrating, but also added to the aura.
My issue with exhibitions that have such a strong emphasis on the “experience” is that there’s the possibility for the show to be carried by the very fact that it’s an experience, rather than its conceptual or theoretical points. It feels very interesting and different when you consider how so much of art doesn’t encompass all your senses, so naturally it makes an impression. Now whether Jan Tichy is making good use of the “experiential” to convey ideas of structure, space and time or rather just as a cop out tactic could be debated. Either way, a very nice show and highly recommend visiting.