Harmony Korine

Aggressive Dr1fter Part II

★★☆☆☆

On until 27 July 2024

Korine’s reputation precedes him. His cult legends like Kids and Trash Humpers are hard to eclipse. They have, however, earned him a place in both the indie canon and the art financiers’ chequebooks. This hasn’t always been to the work’s benefit. 2019’s Beach Bum shot in the style of Baywatch, for example, was thumbs-down dull. 

Last year’s Aggro Dr1ft is a brutal story of “the world’s greatest assassin”. The violence of gunshots, car chases, and concealed identities certainly could make for a sleepless night. Shot in a psychedelic, infrared colour, this film might be Korine’s return to form.

None of this is of use to the gallery, however. A series of canvases reproduces the film’s most striking scenes with the finesse of an inexperienced but already blasé studio assistant. The garish colours which may have carried the story in cinema here are unfitting of their new medium. One or two do invoke the eeriness promised by the project’s synopsis, but this is through chance rather than artistic merit. To make matters worse, the exhibition includes a couple of video objects that loop the film’s sequences. These would be more appropriate for NFT drops if not bus-stop billboards.


notes and notices are short and curt exhibition reviews. Read more:

Alia Farid, Elsewhere at Chisenhale ★★★☆☆

Alia Farid

Elsewhere

★★★☆☆

There is no answer in the work. Its cause and the object become enmeshed in a bland, exoticized mess. 

Mike Kelley, Ghost and Sprit at Tate Modern ★★★☆☆

Mike Kelley

Ghost and Spirit

★★★☆☆

The challenge of curating a retrospective of a career as rich as Kelley’s is to build a narrative that both lay audiences and art historians can believe. Wood packs the show and pleases neither fully.  It’s remarkable that any artist’s…

Yannis Maniatakos, Four Paintings at Sylvia Kouvali ★★★☆☆

Estate of Yiannis Maniatakos

Four Paintings

★★★☆☆

Examining the paintings in the gallery’s bright lights doesn’t lift their mystery.

Sibylle Ruppert, Frenzy of the Visible at Project Native Informant ★★★★☆

Sibylle Ruppert

Frenzy of the Visible

★★★★☆

This is the fodder of DeviantArt and the last year’s AI engines.

A Comparative Dialogue Act, Luxemburg pavilion in Venice ★★☆☆☆

Andrea Mancini, Every Island

A Comparative Dialogue Act

★★☆☆☆

Stage fright is real. Cowardice is another thing altogether.

Isaac Julien: All That Changes You. Metamorphosis at Victoria Miro ★★☆☆☆

Isaac Julien

All That Changes You. Metamorphosis

★★☆☆☆

An idle fancy is detached from here and now, which already shows signs of ageing.

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