Ruins in esrever

Ruins in reverse is an exhibition in the Project Space at Tate Modern between 1 March – 24 June 2013.

According to the rather nice, free, catalogue for the exhibition:

“Ruins in Reverse takes its title from an idea found in Robert Smithson’s 1967 essay A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic. The text relates the story of the artist’s trip to his birthplace in New Jersey, armed only with his Kodak Instamatic camera and a science fiction novel, Earthworks by Brian Aldiss. Smithson’s observations of the suburban structures within this decaying industrial landscape suggest a playful approach to archaeology. His reflections on the unintended rnonumentality of its bleak ‘concrete abutments’ and suburban allotments attempt to find hidden meaning within the detritus of modern civilisation and capture its post-industrial charm.

Following Smithson’s approach, Ruins In Reverse sets up a central dichotomy between the matter-of-factness of an archaeological site and the fiction of its interpretation. Taking these deeply intertwined, yet antagonistic terms – ‘archaeology’ and ‘fiction’ – as one of the starting points for the show, this exhibition brings together six emerging and recently established international artists to question the traditional divide between historical monuments and disregarded urban ruins.”

Ruins in Reverse, catalogue, Tate Modern 2013

 Actually, once you manage to find it, the display is a bit disappointing. There are some images of the Star Wars sets in the Tunisian desert (which we’ve all seen before), statues in Peru and a case of postcards of various monuments from around the world. Oh and some rather uninteresting installations. The only exhibit worth looking at is a series of graffiti (Pintas Jose Carlos Martinat, 2013), seemingly lifted from concrete surfaces onto a resin and fibreglass substrate (see images). These originate in Lima, and the catalogue tells us that the artist intends to remove some similar graffiti from London and exhibit them in Lima.

The sad thing is that landscape artist Robert Smithson’s essay (which is easy to find as a pdf on the web) is very interesting

“That zero panorama seemed to contain ruins in reverse, that is—all the new construction that would eventually be built. This is the opposite of the “romantic ruin” because the buildings don’t fall into ruin after they are built but rather rise into ruin before they are built. This anti-romantic mise-en-scene suggests the discredited idea of time and many other “out of date” things. But the suburbs exist without a rational past and without the “big events” of history. Oh, maybe there are a few statues, a legend, and a couple of curios, but no past—just what passes for a future. A Utopia minus a bottom, a place where the machines are idle, and the sun has turned to glass, and a place where the Passaic Concrete Plant (253 River Drive) does a good business in STONE, BITUMINOUS, SAND, and CEMENT.”

Robert Smithson 1967 A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic, New Jersey. Artforum, December

Given its claims for “the matter-of-factness of an archaeological site and the fiction of its interpretation” this exhibition seemed to sail on in blythe ignorance of what archaeologists are actually doing, or have done. As far as I could see, the exhibition did not give us any examples of a “discredited idea of time” – rather it just went over the usual territory of ruin/ruin porn. The idea of “no past—just what passes for a future” is intriguing; a rejection of the romantic ruin trope in favour of something that is becoming. Just don’t expect to find it in the Project Space at Tate Modern (only until 24 June 2013)

p.s. In a way, Smithson echoes Benjamin’s observations in his essay Paris – Capital of the Nineteenth Century,  where he says:

“Balzac was the first to speak of the ruin of the bourgeoisie. But it was surrealism which first allowed its gaze to roam freely over it. The development of the forces of production had turned the wish-symbols of the previous century into rubble, even before the monuments which represented them had crumbled….With the upheaval of the market economy, we begin to recognize the monuments of the bourgeoisie as ruins even before they have crumbled.”