Andy Warhol, Other Voices, Other Rooms
Accessible Exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London
Oct 16, 2008
The Southbank Centre shows how Andy Warhol’s talent extended far beyond his familiar still pop art images into film, video and TV.
Entering the Andy Warhol, Other Voices, Other Rooms exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, visitors first encounter a room filled from floor to ceiling with a curious mix of Warhol’s beautiful early images, some well known pop art images, many personal and touching Polaroids of friends, stars and the artist himself, alongside books t-shirts and a bewildering array of other Wahol inspired creations.
The effect is confusing; clearly Andy Warhol was a talented guy, but was he just muddled and seduced by his glamorous entourage?
Warhol Gives Up Painting…
In 1965 Warhol announced that he would move away from painting in order to concentrate on film making. And from then on, attempting to classify Warhol’s work makes no sense. Not that it seemed to make much sense before.
The exhibition TV-scape consists of dozens of TV sets each being watched by headphone wearing viewers. The effect is curious, you’re struck by the sheer volume of images, the abundance of ideas, and when you sit down to watch the TV offerings are oddly seductive in an indefinable way.
Surrounding the TV-scape, one wall has padded booths playing recordings of Warhol in conversation and at work, and his video portraits line another wall. These apparently throwaway features give an intimate impression on this man who seemed so at pains to protect himself from the world.
…and Turns to Film
Yes, his films are long and often, frankly, boring when watched as feature films. Not much happens and they seem rather self absorbed. But seeing around 20 of them running in parallel in the exhibition’s Filmscape is a haunting experience, for days after you will remember striking images, sometimes amplified by the curiously slowed down format of many of Warhol’s films. Perhaps he was just exploring the rapidly evolving culture of his time to see what he could find?
All is Pretty
A subtler, and apparently deeper message, is slowly revealed as the different elements of this remarkable exhibition unfold. And the message is extraordinarily appropriate now, as the world stumbles into new, uncharted waters of insecurity.
Warhol had understood the increasingly transient nature of our society and our culture, and sought to express and celebrate the freedom it gave. An insatiably curious workaholic, Warhol explored new technologies such as video recording in order to explore new images, ideas and cultural phenomena. And perhaps Andy was right: once we lose our old assumptions about the world, “all is pretty”.
