Martin Creed: What’s the point of it?
Sarah Creed visits her namesake’s new exhibition and finds a heady mix of crude humour, playfulness and exploration…
I arrive at the Southbank on a cloudy Sunday morning, slightly disheveled by the drizzly weather, plus the fact it is pre-10am and I am yet to have my morning dose of caffeine. I have abandoned my cherished lie-in, as I have decided to spend the morning viewing the work of my namesake (not a relative!) at the Hayward’s new major retrospective.
I have enjoyed Martin Creed’s work for a few years now; particularly since his ARTIST’S ROOM show at Tate Liverpool, in which he installed his controversial Work 837 – Sick Film (of four people vomiting) in the Wolfson Gallery. Creed has always been an artist who is playful and doesn’t take conceptual art too seriously; he makes people confront the simplest of things, whether it be cardboard boxes or bodily functions, and puts them in a gallery setting, giving them no meaning other than that we wish them to have.
Assuring I’m under the 6ft 6 inches maximum entrance height for the exhibition (an interesting condition of entry…) I am instantly confronted by a 12-metre long, swinging steel girder, brandishing the word MOTHER (Work No. 1092, 2011) in large white neon letters. Taking up the entire gallery — although apparently 6ft 6 inches off the floor — the piece not only makes you duck in fear every 5 seconds, but overwhelms the space, giving the room an unbelievable sense of height, and making me see a gallery I have visited hundreds of times before in a completely new light. This is definitely going to be my kind of exhibition.
When asked by Adrian Searle in an online tour of the show if his Work No. 268 (a room that has exactly half of its volume filled with latex balloons) was art, Creed simply states, “Aye – I don’t know about that.” It’s not about deep, philosophical meaning for him. His work is about playfulness, fun, exploration and simply making people see everyday objects in a different light.
When I entered Work No. 268 I felt 6 years old again, running around an adult-sized ball park with not a care in the world. Entire walls are filled with broccoli prints, intermittent lights flicker on and off, audio installations play Creed blowing raspberries, and on the gallery’s balconies cars spring to life of their own accord, and, more unexpectedly, an external video installation of a penis becoming erect and flaccid… the show overall left me feeling like I’d walked into an artist’s version of Willy Wonka’s factory.
I was happy to see that the exhibition contained several other neon works by Creed, other than the menacing MOTHER installation at the entrance; these are some of his most substantial works. With a heavy nod to artists such as Bruce Nauman (currently enjoying his own retrospective in Preston), Creed has definitely carved a niche in which his video and neon installations ask more thoughtful questions, and allow the viewer more reflection time (Work No. 890, DON’T WORRY (2008) is included here in bright yellow).
I left feeling elated. It was the most fun I had had in an exhibition in a long time, not having to over-analyse the reason ‘why’ things had been done. Creed succeeded in creating an environment which successfully introduces all his mediums (video, sculpture and painting), as well as a light-hearted nudge to those who need to take themselves a little less seriously.
The ‘exit via the gift shop’ was, as expected, unconventional. Having no choice but to walk through the previously stated controversial Sick Film works, I was left asking myself the very question posed by Creed himself: What was the point of it? Well for me, a whole lot of fun.
Sarah Creed
Martin Creed: What’s the point of it? runs at Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, London until 27 April 2014, £11/£10/£9/£7.50
Open daily Mondays 12-6pm, Tuesdays-Wednesdays 10am-6pm, late nights Thursdays and Fridays until 8pm
See the rest of our Unmissable Exhibitions 2014
