An Art And Technology Double Header At Serpentine Galleries, Reviewed

Michael Craig-Martin: Transience at Serpentine Gallery ★★☆☆☆

Tabish Khan
By Tabish Khan Last edited 99 months ago
An Art And Technology Double Header At Serpentine Galleries, Reviewed Michael Craig-Martin: Transience at Serpentine Gallery 2
Brightly coloured technology by Michael Craig-Martin. Photo copyright Jerry Hardman-Jones.

Michael Craig-Martin: Transience

It's been a great year for Craig-Martin so far, with a spectacular summer exhibition at The Royal Academy of Arts. So the boldly coloured walls now present at the Serpentine Gallery to accompany works by Craig-Martin follow his signature style of taking common items, like trainers and batteries, and giving them a vibrant new colour scheme.

There's no doubt they have visual punch, and there's a nostalgic and familiar feel to seeing outmoded technology like a cassette and current technology such as a laptop given a colour makeover. But what's lacking is anything beyond this. Sure, it's nice to look at, but at the Serpentine Gallery we expect work to provide a certain level of depth beyond the mere aesthetics. Without this, the work is simply the art equivalent of a child's toy.

Londonist Rating:

★★☆☆☆

Circular mapping of lots of technology and management speak. Photo copyright readsreads.info.

Simon Denny: Products for Organising

Over at the Serpentine Sackler is an exhibition that looks at hacking and how systems are managed at big corporations. There is plenty to see and read here, with what look like circular mind maps of information systems speak, while over on a scaffold platform are various items in server racks that explore the history of hacking.

There's certainly a lot of information, but it feels like a massive brain dump of everything that artist Simon Denny has researched. It's largely impenetrable and if there is a message within this exhibition it's hidden behind a ton of jargon. This is a shame: if the effort had been made to cut out the nonsense and provide some sort of a narrative, this could have been a solid show.

Londonist Rating:

★☆☆☆☆

Michael Craig-Martin: Transience is on at Serpentine Gallery and Simon Denny: Products for Organising is on at Serpentine Sackler Gallery. Both exhibitions are on until 14 February. Both galleries are free to enter and open Tuesday-Sunday.

Last Updated 18 December 2015

Continued below.