• Group Exhibition
  • Southbank Centre, London
  • 2008

Now Showing

"… if there is an evolving maturity in these works then perhaps this also reflects the more general landscape of contemporary art today. What is remarkable about this collection of works is that they move from London to Russia, Syria to Nevada. Their content covers subjects as diverse as Bach, astronaut training, anti-psychiatry, modernist architecture, the Iraq war, the nature of miracles and children's games. At one point in history, many of these subjects would have found a home in television, documentary, narrative film or the music world. Now, as those branches of culture become homogenised, there is less possibility for innovation in those fields. At the same time, the visual art world has broadened the scope of what can be considered within its confines and has become the natural home of experiment. The range of diversity of the works in 'Now Showing' take us beyond video art and the gallery. The artists represented here acknowledge that history, but their work also encourages us to look at the longer relationship of art and film, the works of May Deren, Joseph Cornell, Walker Evans, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Paul Strand and many others. That history of artists questioning the nature of the moving image is still to be properly addressed but its outlines become clearer when we begin to discern the continued heritage of their investigations in contemporary works." — Francis McKee