Dreamland

One of the most impressive exhibitions I saw during my recent trip to Paris was the Dreamland exhibition at the Centre Pompidou and the installation that really hit me was Malachi Farrell’s shocking “Nothing Stops a New Yorker”, a rich mix of menace and absurdity, borrowing from Arte Povera, Dada, Jean Tinguely and sound art.
What you get is artistic fireworks. Buildings standing in the middle of heaps of trash, suggesting the decline of our infrastructure, outfitted with cardboard arms, activated by a motion detector, which also triggers a two-part, high-decibel soundtrack. The first audio is an aerobics session, with the cheery voice of the instructor orchestrating the flow of the movement as the sculptures raise and lower their arms. The workout is interrupted by panicked news reports from September 11, 2001, along with terror-alert broadcasts and excerpts from Public Enemy songs.

Malachi Farrell’s complex installations link light and sound to the mechanical choreography of his invented objects. Their tinkered and handcrafted characteristics reinforce the dark humor and satire suggestive of circus and street theatre while confronting us with political, social, and ecological issues, creating uneasiness and prompt us to act.