Richard Moss is entertained by an ambitious exhibition that occupies The Furnace, a new gallery at Greenland Street Liverpool.
Goshka Macuga’s Sleep of Ulro is an exhibition with so much in it you’ll either find yourself applauding its eclectic eccentricity or being annoyed at its self indulgence.
For the inaugural installation in Liverpool’s newest contemporary art venue, Greenland Street, the A-Foundation have given Polish-born artist Macuga the run of their large scale industrial Furnace Gallery. And she uses it to full effect.
Working in collaboration with If-Untitled Architects, she has created an all-encompassing environment that segues into the post-industrial interior of the gallery. A series of ‘elements’ are made up of corridors, rooms, elevated walkways and a remarkable gallery pod supported by scaffold and reached via a hatch door and a vertiginous stairway.
The latter is clinical white, save for a dandelion growing in a corner, and contains clean Perspex cases full of stuffed animals, manuscripts and anatomical models. It's an eclecticism that is mirrored throughout the exhibition, which utilises a mix of museum objects together with artworks by a variety of artists.
There are however some strong themes that emerge and it soon becomes evident that Macuga is much enamoured with German Expressionist film sets, the works of William Blake, the Hermitage and a raft of morbid fascinations ranging from old anatomical models and antiquarian prints to Madame Blavatsky, fungus and the Wizard of Oz.
Depending on which way you choose to enter (you are given a map – of sorts – but your preferred route is left to you) the first room or 'element' is strange, dark and atmospheric - and stretches away mysteriously into the distance. Along its wall is a series of dull-lit cabinets - full of strange stuff.
The stomach of a gannet, a meteorite, an elephant bird egg and a severed hand are just some of the objects that appear through the gloom. This is ‘art gallery as chamber of horrors’ and appears like a Victorian collection of curios crossed with the set of a Hollywood gothic movie.
Emerging from this cabinet of curiosities into the remnants of the furnace gallery, you will see how Macuga has gone to town with the space – creating a work that fills the old furnace workshop.
Dominating proceedings is an ambitious architectural installation that evokes the film sets of the Cabinet of Dr Caligari, complete with obliquely angled walls and walkways that lead to nowhere. Elsewhere, workshop offices become mini-galleries, with soundtracks and projections, while an upstairs control room is transformed into a ‘mystical cell’ that works as a kind of homage to William Blake.
For the latter a scarecrow figure has been placed in the corner and the black walls scrawled with faux-mystical doodling. A thespian recording of Blake’s Jerusalem booms from speakers concealed above the door.
Back out of this claustrophobic cell and you will pass symbolic traces: the remnants of a fire, a maypole, a magic star painted onto the floor and a prone female figure made from papier mache attached to puppet strings.
Still further on, another room, a former works office, filled with cases of fungal models (borrowed from Manchester and Liverpool museum collections) together with contemporary artworks by a range of artists. Upstairs you are confronted by a comical effigy of Madame Blavatsky suspended between two chairs – while behind a curtain, beyond a table of Theosophical pamphlets, there’s a screening of the Wizard of Oz.
Back in the main gallery, down a darkened corridor, another film plays – this time a Russian one – was it Russian Ark by Alexander Sokurov? It’s difficult to tell as there are no images - only the soundtrack and the subtitles are left as clues.
It’s a curious exhibition and something of a rag bag. Perhaps it should be subtitled: My Favourite Things?
The Furnace commissions aim to become one of the UK’s most exciting and challenging by encouraging artists to create high quality, large-scale works that push the boundaries of their practice. Sleep of Ulro reveals an artist doing just this – Macuga seems to be having fun, pushing boundaries and 'letting go' to produce something that might be uneven in parts but is never dull.
A Foundation, 67 Greenland Street, Liverpool, L1 0BY, Merseyside, England
T: 0151 706 0600
Open: Greenland Street is open Weds - Sunday 12-6pm. Late night Thursday until 8pm.
