RE/SISTERS

★★☆☆☆

On until 14 January 2024

There are two reasons to see this show. One is that it collects so many must-see works that you might not have seen some of them before. The other is that the exhibition is a Johnsonian effort to catalogue the modern-day cult of Gaia and you might never have known without it that all female artists are gentle nags. 

Unparadoxically, these are also reasons not to see this show. The works are ‘diverse’, but most feel the same as the next. Too many deadpan landscape photographs turn intrigue into fatigue and into paralysis. And this anti-capitalist, anti-racist, anti-male dictionary of environmental resistance is even more biased than the one it seeks to replace.

And that’s a pity because why we insist that women are and will save the Earth is forever intriguing. Individually, each practice on show could choose to worship or dance on Gaia’s altar. But in this Hades, the works fall prey to other agendas that call for dull slogans, not myths. 


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

Odoteres Ricardo de Ozias at David Zwirner ★★★☆☆

Odoteres Ricardo de Ozias

★★★☆☆

These images are perfectly charming even to a viewer possessed of a cold anthropological eye. The troubling part is in realising just how far ‘outside’ the ideas are.

Deimantas Narkevičus, The Fifer at Maureen Paley ★★☆☆☆

Deimantas Narkevičus

The Fifer

★★☆☆☆

In the age of the decolonial, this is as quaint as it is outmoded

Amilia Graham, The Crust at Scatological Rites of All Nations ★★☆☆☆

Amilia Graham

The Crust

★★☆☆☆

Each show lasts no more than three hours, and it’s bring-your-own booze.

Miranda Forrester, Arrival at Tiwani Contemporary ★★★☆☆

Miranda Forrester

Arrival

★★★☆☆

Forrester’s project is timely when foundational concepts like ‘mother’ and their ‘as-though’ counterparts are readily confused.

Women in Revolt! at Tate ★★★☆☆

Women in Revolt!

★★★☆☆

There’s a room for female labour, a corner for childbirth, one for black women, and a section for lesbians. This is as close to nuance as Tate gets today.

Matthew Barney, SECONDARY at Sadie Coles HQ ★★★☆☆

Matthew Barney

SECONDARY: light lens parallax

★★★☆☆

Secondary turns the gallery into an American Football stadium. But all the seats in the house are the cheap seats and the game lacks a cheerleader.

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