Pictures flipped on a kaleidoscopic axis

About a week and a half ago (on the 16th), a Gilbert and George retrospective opened to the public at the de Young, its first stop on American soil. And since I had nothing in particular to do on that sunny Saturday morning, I walked from my apartment (after a blueberry pancake breakfast - look for a new recipe in a future post!), through the Park and over to the museum, to check out the works of these self-proclaimed "living sculptures".

Yes, the artists refer to *themselves* as "living sculptures" - more on that later - but the most notable works at this particular exhibition are very large-scale installations of their manipulated photography, sexually-charged pictures - these guys never shied away from a little nudity - flipped this way and that along many a kaleidoscopic axis; the colors seem to have been dragged through a bright, wet circus. The exhibition has its own website here, where you may check out a selection of the featured work.

Whether you like what you see online (or in print for that matter), those tiny mediums do not do the real installations justice. I'll admit that I'd never been a huge fan of Gilbert and George, but seeing these works live, taking up full, massive walls, was a sight to behold; most of the work is on the order of 10x13 feet and echoed large, vaguely religious icons (if your religious icons are also vaguely political and vaguely homosexual). haha.

Back to the living statue reference, the last room of the exhibit does have some paraphernalia from some of Gilbert and George's performance art over the years (a medium in which they initially made their names). For example, in one piece, Gilbert and George invited selected members of the art community to watch them eat a full, multi-course dinner as if there was no such audience; that was that. They would also extend their "act" - in explanation, anyway - to everything they do, from waking up and dressing to interacting in any public forum.

In this way, I suppose I saw a Gilbert and George original piece of performance art when the two gentlemen - live!, and in their requisite matching suits - walked through the exhibit (past me and others) at the de Young, casually chatting to themselves. I should say that I don't think the act was planned, part of a talk or "appearance" or anything; they didn't even seem to look up at the art (but I guess they are pretty familiar with their own work). Still, it was good timing on my part because it added a nice little gold star to the afternoon. It was especially funny because they use their own image in many of the works, so it was like they popped right off the wall (and became 20 years older, in some cases). Cool stuff.

By the way, the retrospective was curated by the folks at the Tate Modern in London, who posted a few short films of Gilbert and George talking about the exhibit itself, but also about their artistic process. Interesting stuff for those who want to learn more.