Exhibition Review

Currently showing at Stuart Shave Modern Art is the latest offering from the energetic, German performance artist Jonathan Meese. This, his third, solo exhibition is comprised of his latest sculptures, paintings and collages. He describes this show as ‘the Dictatorship of art arrives in London.’
The artist believes that art will rule the world, politicians will have to leave parliament and give their power to the art world. He believes that the future will have only ‘toy money’, and fake wars, containing ‘toy weapons’ and ‘toy blood’. At the centre of his perceived future is the actress Scarlet Johansson, whom he believes is like a toy doll of this world. He claims she is the mother of the Dictatorship of Art. In his view art is a place where we are free to play, with no rituals or rules, in this way art produces no victims or enemies. Art has no opinions; therefore it has no problems with the evil in the world. He goes so far as to say that in the art world Hitler is neutral.
This current exhibition shows images of Hitler and Stalin on the fronts of Top Trumps-style playing cards. The walls are scrawled with unreadable words from his own made-up language, which was invented as a child. His Canvases consist of childish scrawling in bold colours along with images of Scarlet Johannson and symbols of dictators and politicians. His use of symbols such as the swastika alongside the images of Johansson produce a sort of strange neutrality, as the image of the celebrity gives the symbol the same sense of the everyday. Flowing lines give the feeling of a disgusting, necessary, liquid movement through the pieces. There is an almost offensive, manic energy throughout the show. These suggestive pieces are disturbing, shocking and repulsive and make for uncomfortable viewing; but at the same time the juxtaposed images cause the viewer to look at the content with new eyes, which results in a thought provoking experience.
The way he juxtaposes an image of Hitler with an image of SpongeBob reflects his belief that art has no problem with bad. SpongeBob has no problem with Hitler and nor does art. He revisits atrocious events from history and with his playful techniques turns them into nonsense. The artist sees this as a way of breaking these events down and as an attempt to destroy them. He almost tries to then make sense of this nonsense with his new fresh perspective. In the canvases which he displays as a series of triptychs, his belief that art does not require skill is reflected. These canvases have an almost grotesque, overly personal cohesion but show no technical ‘skill’.
Alongside canvases Meese presents sculptures of unrecognisable torsos. He believes these creations to be the upraised soldiers of the future. These bronze sculptures draw you in by their human-like activities such as smoking a pipe, but have strange features such as an eye which protrudes from the face in a suggestive manor.
In this ‘art world’ he’s created humans are insignificant creatures who will soon be gone, he sees humans as unimportant, not central to the world. As a result of this he believes we should behave like children; eating, screaming, and playing. Humans should only carry out actions they feel are necessary, hence the word ‘metabolism’ in the name, a necessary process for humans. This reflects his belief in a simple truth, where individualism is not needed.
With his use of soft toys, rocking horses, playing cards and sex dolls, Meese has turned this gallery space into a twisted, adult playground for the human race where we are expected to have no concept of right and wrong. There is a sense of an almost optimistic freedom throughout, a feeling of strange naivety and innocence when confronted with the evil in the world.
This metaphoric montage of imagery, however juvenile at times, explores disturbing historic events and will force you to think about society and the role of the art world in new ways. This show is a statement about what the truth about the world is to the artist, it confronts themes abruptly and is extremely invasive. The show runs from the 15th of January to the 21st of February, 2009.