We’re surrounded by conspiracy theories these days, magnified by people deliberately lying on social media to stoke up unfounded fears – so the Warburg Institute has an exhibition about conspiracy.
However, it’s an art exhibition, and one that is frankly as difficult to understand as the conspiracies themselves.
Contemporary art can at times blow you away with how good it is, or trigger a headache as you try to work out what on earth is going on. Alas, this exhibition needs a lot of headache pills.
Take the boxes wrapped in black tape, intended to symbolise the hiding of secrets. Once you’ve read the explanatory label, they’re intellectually accessible enough. Without the label, though, they’re just… boxes wrapped in tape. At several points I realised I was spending far more time reading the wall text than looking at the art, which raises an awkward question: if the art only makes sense once you’ve read a small essay about it, why not just hang the essay?
One vast sheet is explained as a reference to a 16th-century tapestry rediscovered in the 1920s and now in the Met Museum, with tape holding it together to represent its “layers of history”. Fine. I’m still at a complete loss as to what the spinning wheel and theatrical spotlights were meant to be doing. Possibly summoning something.
There are a few other mildly curious objects, but nothing that really lands or convincingly fulfils the exhibition’s brief.
If anything, there’s a conspiracy of silence going on, as only those in the know, with the depth of understanding of the hidden mysteries of modern art, can be permitted to penetrate the occult nature of contemporary art exhibitions.
The masses outside shall be denied enlightenment.
The exhibition, Conspiracies, is at the Warburg Institute (part of the University of London) until 1st May.
It’s free to visit, and open Tues to Sat from 10am to 6pm (5pm on Sat).
Woburn Square
London
WC1H 0AB
Details here.
