Palisades Interstate Park on the banks of the Hudson River in New Jersey is a hiker’s and biker’s paradise, but it was once a battlefield. In her eerily compelling film ‘Palisades in Palisades’, on show at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery in Kensington Gardens, young American artist Rachel Rose creates a moving collage that segues from a sunny day in the park to imagery of the place during the American Revolution. Her camera lingers over a woman smoking a cigarette on a rock, zooming into the weave of her denim, even the pores of her skin, then pulling back to reveal paintings and prints of battles during the Revolutionary War. While the imagery strobes between past and present, a soundtrack creates an atmosphere of impending disaster. ‘I’m the voice of dead people,’ whispers a female voice (which turns out to be that of Meryl Streep). The low crackle of static blurs into what sounds like a fusillade of gunfire.
This isn’t just a hugely evocative piece or art, it’s a great use of the gallery which, coincidentally, was built to store gunpowder during the Napoleonic war. The Sackler’s layout is a little awkward: two central windowless rooms are surrounded by a corridor-like space. Rose turns this to her advantage, placing nothing but speakers around the perimeter space that play the soundtrack as a kind of stuttering relay. Meanwhile, on show in the other central space a second film, ‘A Minute Ago’, continues the theme of impending catastrophe with YouTube footage of a freak hailstorm on a beach. Suddenly, and somewhat disconcertingly, the late US architect Philip Johnson pops up, giving a tour of his iconic modernist (and suddenly very vulnerable-looking) Glass House in Connecticut.
There’s a huge buzz around Rose at the moment. She’s the winner of the 2015 Frieze Artist Award and, this week, will create a new work for Frieze Art Fair. But, judging by this show, the hype is more than deserved. She has a terrific way of conjuring stories that veer from everyday life to the epic sweep of history, while pointing out our vanity in the face of uncontrollable natural forces. As art, it’s no walk in the park, but it will leave you with plenty to think about as you make your way back through the manicured delights of Kensington Gardens.