GROUP EXHIBITION AT THE RENNIE COLLECTION

Mike Nelson, Le Cannibale (parody, consumption and institutional critique), 2008

On now at the Rennie Collection is a compelling exhibition of works by art world superstars Pablo Bronstein, Aaron Curry, Andrew Grassie, Louise Lawler, Mike Nelson, Roman Ondak and Ian Wallace.

The art, pulled from the Collection's extensive warehouse of acquired works, is curated tightly around the idea of institutional critique. Mike Nelson's work, Le Cannibale, is perhaps the most strikingly obvious exploration of this mandate. Using an indiscernible repertoire of brute force and power tools, Nelson tore apart the walls of the Hayward Gallery in London only to piece them back together into sculptural plinths of varying sizes. The resulting installation still possesses the energy and violence of the initial destruction — a postmortem memorial to the Hayward Gallery as we knew it.

Aaron Curry's installation in the next room, which is actually comprised of two pieces (The Monad Has Wheels and Untitled, both from 2010), transforms the gallery space into an immersive experience, effectively camouflaging the usually-striking sculptural work against the now-patterned walls.

Aaron Curry, The Monad Has Wheels (Wooden Knight), 2010 and Untitled, 2010

Visitors to the Collection also get a chance to be a part of the artwork themselves; Roman Ondak's piece, Measuring the Universe, sees gallery assistants measuring the height of every visitor against the gallery walls until the show's closure. As time passes, the walls will be populated with more and more lines and names, until each individual's data is subsumed into a scribbled mass of measurement. The end of the show will see the erasure of these names as the walls are painted over with gallery-white again — that is, unless Mr. Rennie feels like inviting Mike Nelson over to expose them one day with a chainsaw or sledgehammer.

Book your visit to the Rennie Collection here.