Art

It’s hard to imagine a more belligerent statement of the post-minimalist ethos than ‘Dis-Play’, by American artist Keith Sonnier. Originally made in 1970, it features typical ‘specific objects’ – a large cube, cylinder and oblong planes – which have been slathered in fluorescent pigments and haphazardly arranged on the floor among flashing, unsynchronised strobe-lights and neon tubes. The whole thing is a funky rebuttal to minimalism’s order and serenity, a sprawling celebration of mess, activity and entropy.The basic problem with its re-staging here, however, is that the space is too small. Instead of being an immersive experience of sensory overload, the installation is contained to one side of the room – an art-historical artefact to be respectfully regarded. By contrast, disorienting video projections, also from the ’70s, seem much more effective, given that their subject matter – television broadcasting and communication technology – inevitably resonate with today’s culture of media proliferation.Sonnier’s sculptural works, though, need space to breathe. And that’s what they get, outside the main gallery, dotted about the walls – quite literally, in the case of his perpetually inflating-and-deflating bag-figure. Assembled from tattered industrial materials, decorated wooden boards, and neon tubes, these primitive, ritualistic forms and icons manage to convey a feeling of brash, slightly sinister playfulness that’s unfortunately completely lacking in the main installation.