Andy Holden & The Grubby Mitts @ Palmer Gallery
Is this an art exhibition or an album launch listening party? According to the companion essay by Ian F. Svenonius it is “a record album as an art installation” which implies your focus as an attendee should be evenly split between the visuals as well as the sounds. My overwhelmed brain was too distracted to carefully analyse either, a fortunate happenstance that actually elevated my experience.
The core exhibit is based around nine separate video projections, one for each track on the album. Spaced all around and in-between are paintings, hanging pendants that are actually melted records, and shiny hunks of slag from the Thames estuary. It’s all numbered on the gallery floor-plan but there’s no fixed sequence. Visitors don any set of headphones that are currently free, but will then soon be drawn towards whatever catches their eyes at the exact moment their mind starts wandering away from the track they’re listening to. The randomness is a brilliantly simple metaphor for how modern society consumes media. Ordering by impulsivity as opposed to logic or authoritative direction.
Video killed the radio star but digital streaming and the near eradication of physical media killed the listener. People no longer sit and listen to an entire album. Most modern artists don’t even make albums. Music is now consumed via singles or, if you’re Generation Alpha, short samples that are catchy enough to help your Tik Tok go viral. Alas, none of these tunes are gonna crack the Top 40 but the title track “Love in the Misanthropocene” has a good shot at being the most confounding earworm since Toto topped the charts in 1982 by slipping the word Kilimanjaro into the lyrics of Africa. In fact all of the tunes are well crafted which helps explain why the average visitor spends 30 minutes going from listening station to listening station.
As for the videos, cartoon Andy is an amusing watch and some of the subtitles (“The dogs have lost their taste for blood”) are certainly going to grab your attention and shake your shoulders from across the room, but most of them have a low-key vibe best described as lazy Sunday brunch. Then again, are music videos even a thing anymore? For a brief moment in time they were more important than radio, but MTV stopped being relevant well before the millennium despite the fact that the best best clips from it’s heyday were all made by auteurs. Madonna’s Vogue and George Michael’s Freedom! 90 are both timeless number one songs, but the imagery now in the head of any Millennial or Gen X reader is courtesy of David Fincher, who directed their videos.
If you’re still reading this far then you’re probably wondering if I’ve completely missed the point of the exhibition. Well, I wouldn’t be the first person to happily tap my feet to something I’d completely misunderstood. Elton John never sang about Tony Danza and Taylor Swift didn’t pen an ode to Starbucks lovers. My journey managed to completely redirect my attention away from listening to the music and towards how we now consume it. That probably wasn’t Holden’s intention, and my excuse is that I’m old enough to cling onto fond childhood memories of laying on my bedroom floor painstakingly studying the album sleeve artwork, lyrics and liner notes after I’d carefully unfolded the handout from the cassette case. Fans of The Grubby Mitts, and the generation raised on streaming, will most likely digest this show differently.
Speaking of streaming, I won’t be downloading the album to listen in full but I was inspired to revisit some of my favourite albums and artists. I no longer have the liner notes but the beauty of music is that you only need your ears. Paintings, pendants and music videos are nice visual distractions, but if the lyrics aren’t memorable and you’re not moved by the backbeat you’ll have already asked Siri to shuffle to the next track.
Plan your visit
‘Love in the Misanthropocene’ runs until 21 October.
Visit palmergallery.co.uk and follow @palmer.gallery on Instagram for more info about the venue.
Visit andyholdenartist.com and follow @andyholdenphotos and @grubbymittsband on Instagram for more info about the artist and band.
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