It comes as no surprise to learn that Leaps Jumps and Bumps is the first time an exhibition of Sturtevant’s work has been shown in a UK public gallery. The immediate impact of the whole show is far more East London contemporary gallery than the austere, not-for-profit Serpentine. Indeed, with a name that sounds more like a brand than a single person, Sturtevant is cool and on trend – her tone is one of youth and commercialism. However, this is not to do Sturtevant an injustice. Behind the techno beats and re-purposed iconic images of Leaps Jumps and Bumps lies a deep intellectual core for the finding.
To get the most obviously “trendy” works out of the way first, works such as Blow Job (2006), a three-screen video instillation of mouths blowing; Sex Dolls (2012), a line-up of male sex dolls looking out of the large windows of the Serpentine; and Pacman (2012), an animated video of the iconic arcade game Pacman; all play into the overall contemporary look of the exhibition. Her use of repetition, manufacturing, popular iconography, and sexual overtones raises questions of “found art” in an obvious way – is putting a sex doll in the Serpentine making art?
If you have heard of Sturtevant before, you will know her for her reproduction of works by other artists, and perhaps her particular interest in Duchamp. Perhaps most recognisable of the works at the Serpentine is her recreation of Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe Prints (Warhol Diptych, 2004). This piece builds on her controversial initiation into the art world in the 1960s when Sturtevant recreated Andy Warhol’s flower paintings whilst they where still being displayed in their first exhibition. This complex piece, although recognizably Warhol’s work, begs the audience to consider the mechanised repetition of Warhol’s work and asks us to consider the difference between Warhol taking the iconic face of Monroe and calling it his art, and Sturtevant’s taking the iconic Warhol print and calling it her own art. Indeed, the first piece you approach at the Serpentine is made of a circular structure of light bulbs, Gonzalez-Torres Untitled (America) (2004), which is a direct replica of a Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ 2000 work – a re-making of a piece by another artist acting along the lines of Duchamp’s found works.
When not directly appropriating images from other artists, Sturtevant undoubtedly finds inspiration in the works of others. For example, the looming figure of Eadweard Muybridge appears frequently in many of Sturtevant’s works. Finite Infinite (2010), a wall-length projection of a dog running, is clearly reminiscent of Muybridge’s running animations, the never-ending run of the dog reminding the viewer of the replication of images that all art is – hence the much-quoted phrase, to “steal like an artist”. Finite Infinite also makes a clear link with her earlier piece, Dillinger Running (2000). For this work, Sturtevant, dressed in a long fur-lined coat, is shot walking in a sequence of photographs which are projected on the walls of a single room. Always walking – there is no end to Sturtevant’s journey in this piece, just as there is no end for the image of criminal John Dillinger in the public imagination (and in Hollywood).
Repetition and difference are then key to this exhibition – outlined by questions of
authenticity, authorship, originality and representation. Now seen as one of the most prominant artists of the 21st century (having received the Golden Lion at the 2011 Venice Biennale), Sturtevant’s works here illuminate the complex relationship we all have with unattributed information and images – be it online, in galleries or in advertising. Everything is reminiscent of something else, and Sturtevant proves this with artistic flair and true depth.
Commissioned by the now closed online publication One Stop Arts here.
ELLEN ELIZABETH STONE. 