Papagaio is the first UK exhibition of Portuguese artistic collaborators Joao Maria Gusmao and Pedro Paiva. The show consists of 27 16mm films and 2 camera obscura projections through 4 rooms of the Camden Arts Centre, creating an immersive installation. Through a combination of cinematic and curatorial techniques the space is transformed into a world of blurred truths and hidden meanings.
We are shown contradictory images of animals and nature, industrial processes, mundane domestic life and exotic ritual, presented in the same super slow-mo and flickering filmic aesthetic. The films are sometimes playful, sometimes sinister. We are not sure whether to be amused or offended as chimps imitate humans cooking, a tropical fish on an ornamental plate gasps tragically for air and a clay pot that appears to be urinating into a fountain whilst a Grecian sculpture looks on in horror. One gets the sense that there is a story being told but with significant information being withheld. This is emphasized by the fact there is no sound attached to any of the films. However, this is far from a silent exhibition. The 16mm projectors are placed in prominent positions, as sculptural objects in their own right, their mechanisms make a deafening cacophony, which is fitting to the analogue nature of the media as well as being deliberately disorientating. Attempting to concentrate on the films has an effect similar to trying to do mathematical problems in your head whilst someone shouts random numbers to distract you. It is impossible to see the same show twice, the films are at different lengths and once finished they are absent for as long as they were present, meaning there is a constantly changing combination of images and negative spaces that would be almost entirely different if you were to walk through the space twice.
What is the link then between these seemingly disjointed subjects? It seems logical to try and piece together a narrative but this is not the intention of Gusmao and Paiva. The films are referencing personal anecdotes, historical allegories, philosophical ideas and religious doctrines. There are no answers given, just questions raised.
This exhibition is stimulating and challenging in equal measures. If it is taken on face value then it is a series of paradoxical and beautifully filmed studies of human and animal behaviors. But if the viewer is willing to engage further then the installation can be seen as a perception bending archive of anthropological documentaries charged with scientific, religious and philosophical matter.
by Heath Lowndes
The exhibition is on until 29th March 2015
10am – 6pm Tuesday to Sunday / 10am – 9pm Wednesday / Closed Mondays
Camden Arts Centre, Arkwright Road, NW3 6DG
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