Brainwashed?... No, Just Temporarily Distracted

For anyone that has seen Banksy’s Oscar nominated documentary 'Exit Through the Gift Shop', the figure of ‘Mr Brainwash’ (real name Thierry Guetta) will be a familiar one. 

From amateur film-maker to superstar street artist in 87 minutes. It’s a Cinderella story of how a French man met his idol, Banksy, who luckily enough allowed him to ‘document’ his artistic escapades in LA. Guetta then becomes a street artist in his own right, with the audience left to decipher the level of merit in his creations.

The film has caused much speculation in regard to its authenticity due to Banksy’s normally secretive nature. The playfulness that epitomizes his work would also lead us to believe that Guetta is perhaps just a manifestation of Banksy playing a very elaborate trick on the art world; either way, I’d urge you to see the film to make up your own mind as it’s a good watch.

2 years on and away from the film, London plays host to Mr Brainwash in his first solo UK exhibition. Housed in a suitably run down space, the Old Sorting Office on New Oxford Street, the exhibition comprises an assorted array of work from sculpture, to portraits, to a giant gorilla made of bits of tire. With empty phrases such as "Life is Beautiful" and "May The Art Be With You" appearing in various capacities you’re hard pressed to find anything conceptually substantial in the work. Mr Brainwash uses scale and bold splashes of colour to excite the eyes but there’s no real depth to any of the work, nor is there originality; Banksy, Warhol, and Hirst are all lovingly and shamelessly replicated.

 

What you do have though is just a bunch of quite cool looking stuff. The giant Polaroid camera was cool. The giant toy cab was cool. The horses splattered with paint were cool… anyway you get my drift. 

So if you fancy seeing some over-sized cool looking stuff then you’ll have to head to the Harry Potter Tour at Warner Brothers Studio because the MrBrainwash exhibition is finished already.

Bad luck.

Time For Some Art

Whilst passing a shop window in Prenzlauer Berg on a recent jaunt to Berlin, I discovered ‘Standard Time’. A large TV screen visible through the glass had attracted a crowd of tourists all laughing and pointing.  On the screen was a large seemingly digital clock. ‘What’s so amusing about the passage of time?’ I pondered, but low and behold: this was no ordinary clock. This was in fact ‘Standard Time’ – an art project by Mark Formanek, recorded on film, lasting exactly 24 hours.

Standard Time - http://www.standard-time.com

In Standard Time, the lines that make up each digit are huge planks of wood, held by bolts and brackets. As every minute passes a team of workers enter, equipped with hard hats and ladders, to move the planks into their next position. These minute-by-minute changes continue through 24 hours. Though edits are visible, the sun does rise and set at the right time, proving that this art project was created around the clock (excuse the pun).

The anticipation of waiting for each minute change is tantamount to enjoyment for the viewer, and on this occasion in Prenzlauer Berg the assembled audience let out a giddy cheer when the clock ticked on from 22:59 to 23:00. On scurried the yellow-hatted team, ant-like next to the huge numbers. They had barely finished one change, when the next was due.

You can see the overall effect in this time-lapse video:

 

You can also see a behind the scenes of Formanek's more recent version, constructed in Rotterdam, in which Standard Time goes digital.

Though this work can be categorised as ‘performance art’, its practical use as a working clock has made it commercially successful. Standard Time is available on DVD and as an App for iPhone and iPad. Admittedly, my first thought on seeing it was ‘Where can I get a copy?’ though Formanek would perhaps argue that this was never intended as a commercial venture. His artistic explanation on the Standard Time website relates more to the passage of time than sales in the App store. He says: 

‘…this film is much more than just the recording of an action, the recording of something that has taken place in the past; it is also a clock. A clock for use right now and in the future which, as each day goes by, extends further into the past, but is still up-to-date and punctual.’ 

As a bit of a hippy, what I enjoy about this piece is its inherent theme of ‘Togetherness’. Standard Time involved 70 workers, and with a digital clock face measuring 12m x 4m, it was essential for each team to communicate with one another and work together to meet their timely deadlines.  

Standard Time is filmed in Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum, with camera locked off for a wide shot. Berlin’s eastern bloc architecture can be seen in the background, punctuated by ball and spike of the TV Tower. The inclusion of a famous landmark suggests that this is not a generic work of art, but more precisely it is a German work of art. Formanek is putting Berlin on the map for its culture and boosting the German capital’s reputation. Over time the public will associate Berlin less with war and segregation, and more with creativity and unity. And for that reason Standard Time gets a big TellyJuice thumbs up.