In case you haven’t noticed yet, Patrick Keiller’s Robinson is back and you can explore his particular take on Britain at the Tate until 14 October. The exhibition is titled “The Robinson Institute”.
The Robinson Institute aims to promote political and economic change by developing the transformative potential of images of landscape.
Robinson’s journey takes us through the south of England, the location of a Great Malady that he claims he will “dispel in the manner of Turner by making picturesque views on journeys to sites of scientific and historic interest”.
The woes of our current political and economic situation are plotted by the use of Robinson’s trademark documentary style videos, texts, and a series of works form the Tate’s own collection.
The overall message is rather sombre and it soon becomes clear, as we progress through the seven groups of work, that humans as far as Robinson is concerned, are not all that interested in preserving life (or, indeed, anything else) on this planet. For this reason perhaps, Robinson explores Earth’s other options. We are told, for instance, that Robinson believed “he could communicate with a network of non-human intelligences, determined to preserve the possibility of life’s survival on the planet, and that they enlisted him to work on their behalf”.
Yet there are moments in which we get a glimpse of the possibilities for change. Intimations of local rebellions, the inclusion in the exhibited book catalogue of Lyell’s Principles of Geography (which provides scientific bases for doubting the accepted Biblical timescale) and portentous events such as a meteorite penetrating the atmosphere all give us the feeling that, although Robinson will eventually put his money on the lichen, he does feel that there might be some hope for mankind after all.
Robinson is reported to have spotted the following quote in Jameson’s The Seeds of Time: “It seems to be easier for us today to imagine the thoroughgoing deterioration of the earth and of nature than the breakdown of late capitalism; perhaps that is due to some weakness in our imaginations.” This attests simultaneously, it seems, to our hopeless situation and to the faint hope that resides in the absurdity and thus the possible mutability of human reason through the medium of art.
Robinson addresses his subject with an unselfconscious seriousness and an off-beat, seemingly unintentional humour. This odd mixture is reflected in the objects that are presented to us. All in all, the exhibition contains a lightness that only serves to underline the seriousness of its themes. It makes one smile and shudder in equal measure. Whether you manage to find something stimulating in this exhibition or not, your next visit to the countryside will in all probability be a little less innocent.
Some external links
Info at the Tate Britain website
“To Dispel a Great Malady: Robinson in Ruins, the Future of Landscape and the Moving Image“, a research paper by Stephen Daniels, Patrick Keiller, Doreen Massey, Patrick Wright.
A Guardian review by Adrian Searle
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