Installation: "The
P!eace" and "City Rats", ISM Hexadome
Artists: René Löwe &
Pfadfinderei, Tarik Barri & Thom Yorke
Venue:
Martin-Gropius-Bau
Location: Berlin,
Germany
Date: 7 April 2018
Despite being less than
impressed by Brian
Eno's installation at the ISM Hexadome, I returned again to the
space to see what Thom Yorke and his partner in visual arts, Tarik
Barri, had to offer. I came just as their installation was ending and
thus just in time to catch the other team's work in full.
[Pfadfinderei's asteroids and lemon wedges.]
Pfandfinderei's visuals
were nothing revolutionary, but they were fun and they certainly
looked cool. They used three projections, each duplicated once. They
started in a space setting before descending into an impressive
cloudy region. That eventually cleared up to reveal a colorful
moon-like landscape with occasional bursts of what looked like sliced
lemon wedges. This was followed by a rather cheesy space city, a
brief section of even cheesier graphs and charts (disappointingly not
even synced to the music), and then a return to asteroids and space.
While there was nothing unpredictable besides the lemons, most of the
imagery simply looked great.
[Pfadfinderei's space city.]
René Löwe's music was
well-suited to the visuals. The style was fairly conventional
faux-futuristic or pseudo-space-age electronica. There was a steady
beat throughout and warm washes and pulses as befit the imagery. The
music maintained a fairly regular energy level throughout, although
there were a few dips during transitions and a loud swell near the
end. Their installation lasted about 20 minutes, and I could've
gladly absorbed more.
[Tarik Barri's light beams.]
Tarik Barri and Thom
Yorke started out much slower and lower-key. Barri's visuals were
initially almost completely dark with only occasional spreads of
yellowish light. Occasionally, a brief snatch of Yorke's face would
appear. This may have been hampered by the fact that it was daytime
and some light come in from outside, but there wasn't much to see.
The switch to 90s screensaver-style colored light beams didn't help.
After what seemed like a long time, things finally started to pick up
when multiple copies of Yorke's face started appearing, often smeared
and distorted by clouds of smoke. These effects were far more
interesting than the rest of the visuals, but they didn't last long
before being replaced with less exciting closeups and manipulations
of Yorke's face. This gradually faded back to the initial light
spreads and eventually into darkness.
[Tarik Barri's replication of Thom Yorke's head with
smoke effects. This was the best my phone camera could do; it looked
significantly better in person.]
Yorke's music was
similarly minimal for most of the installation. It started with
sparse synth lines and simple repeated vocals phrases such as "in
your headlights" and "I woke up with a feeling that I could
not shake". While I thought the former might have been an
allusion to Yorke's 1998 collaboration with Unkle, "Rabbit in
Your Headlights", this was not pursued any further. Around the
same time the visuals were building up, the music followed suit, with
a bit of an actual beat and a more intense layer of vocals and cold
synth lines.
Their installation
lasted about 30 minutes and felt slow. I can appreciate a build-up,
but I don't think that's quite what they were going for. I liked that
they used all six projectors independently without repeating,
although there was so little going on for most of it that they still
felt underutilized. Yorke's music also took advantage of the web of
speakers around and above the installation. While Eno's music sounded
mono and Löwe's seemed to have just a slight sense of space, Yorke
played around with throwing his voice around the sound stage.
Combined with Barik's six-projector visuals, it made for a much more
immersive experience. Unfortunately, that still didn't quite make up
for the less exciting elements of their presentation.
Scores:
René Löwe &
Pfadfinderei's "The P!eace": B
Tarik Barri & Thom
Yorke's "City Rats": C+
