Eternal Dawn1

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In 2012 it can seem as though nothing is

everlasting other than transience itself. But in

everyday consumer culture visual codes are

often solid and unbroken. These cultural codes

can feel inescapable and can chain us to never

ending consumption cycles, but they can also be

undermined and contextualised critically from

within their very own medium. In artist Ashlin

Raymonds latest exhibition and rst soloshow in Auckland, she presents the enigma

and problem of both consumer goods and

advertisement as a perpetual issue, emphasising

the dark and powerful qualities of

capitalist culture.

Dawn Marble- ETERNAL is hosted by Gloria

Knight. The gallery is in a strange, in-between

location in Wynyard Quarter, somewhereamongst both the seafood warehouses and

sparkly viaduct bars, behind a car park and up

some steps. It is a small space and Raymonds

installation lls it simply and without effort. The

exhibition is composed of two works. Sweaters,

an edition of six black sweaters, hung cross-

like on gold chains, forms an isle that draws

the viewer down to a video work, TECHNO

SLAMMING MOONSCAPE SEMTEX NIRVANA

PHOTOGENIC, displayed on a gigantic plasmascreen television placed on a black plinth.

The installation is lit by gaudy pink light but

is otherwise dark, a stark contrast from the

ubiquitous bright white cube. Rather than being

framed by the gallery space the work generates

its own sense of place through this lighting

choice it becomes a dirty space1, a brothel

or a late-night store, tinged with a spooky air.

The black sweaters are angled so as to direct the

visitor toward the screen and each garment is

embroidered with the Gucci label in gold threadand the fashion houses signature coat

of arms.

The screen plays a video resembling a

commercial advertisement for a luxury perfume,

set to music by Mark Wundercastle2. The digital

video is of breathtakingly high quality and

gratuitously studies a young, handsome male

model reclining, diving into and emerging froma swimming pool. There is a hypnotic quality

to the footage that is apparent in other work

by Raymond3, which is underscored by the

repetitive beat and inaudible, strange whispers

in Wundercastles soundtrack. Like we might

expect from a perfume ad, the video nishes with

translucent text ttingly swimming in to focus on

the screen: ETERNAL by Dawn Marble. While

the video work may resemble what todays visual

1 Interview with artist.2 Te video is in fact modeled on a recent ad for Gucci SPORT PourHomme, staring James Franco. Interview with artist.

3 For example:Lucid Transformation Celebration, 2009,An Endless Salute to Hypnotic

Logic, 2010.

BETWEEN JEALOUSY AND HORROR:

ASHLIN RAYMONDSDAWN MARBLEETERNAL

Gloria Knight 10th - 26th May 2012

By Henry Davidson


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reader recognises as an ad for luxury goods, the

knock-off Gucci sweaters appear estranged from

it. This discrepancy, the disjoint between ad and

product, drives Raymonds installation and is

made apparent to the viewer by the spatial link

between the two facets of the work.

The hard, black rows of Gucci sweaters lead

physically and symbolically up to the videowork. The trajectory of the installation takes

the viewer through the heavily branded product

to the semiotically loose advertisement. Like

most consumer advertising Raymonds ad

promises an empty identity, one that is open and

malleable. Paradoxically, the work demonstrates

how consumers must rst travel through heavy

brand in order to supposedly reach this pure

identity. While in the world of transactions an ad

might convince us to buy a product, Raymondsinstallation shows how the ad and its associated

desire-creating powers are always more important

than what is purchased. The high altar of the

video further entrenches its signicant status

over the Gucci knockoffs. Raymond knowingly

points to how we are tricked into thinking the

object is what we want, when really it is the ad

we desire. In this way the work shows the luxury

goods industrys bizarre promise of freedom via

consumption, of identity cleansing and cleanlinessthrough covering oneself in brand.

While many of us might get this, there is

something in the work that is still irresistible

and beautiful. It is the dark, eternal quality of

consumption that Raymond successfully and

subtly touches on that makesETERNALdifferent.

The focus on water in the video illuminates this.

While water is also a classic trait in perfume

advertising, its elemental and universal qualities

signify the transcendence of the luxury brand.The slow-motion attention to droplets falling

from the models body and the shots focusing

solely on splashes and still water are obsessive

and repetitive. There is a quality of eroticism

and even pornography evoked through the

water that is steeped in the idea of luxury, in

the ability to turn something banal into a leisure

activity. Likewise the commercial quality and

high denition of the video suggests the artice

of both fashion and pornography while capturingsomething that is more than just simulation. The

role of water inETERNALalso seems to mediate

on the swimming pool in contemporary culture

in lm it is often a place of solace or great change

as well as an icon of the hyperreal. Raymonds

pool could easily be thepeaceful LA haven David

Hockney has often painted or the surreal set of

Easton Elliss novel Glamourama.

The work is also reminiscent of artist RichardPhillips recent short videoLindsay Lohan, where

the troubled star swims through a pool and poses

Install viewEternal- Gloria Knight


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in drawn-out close up shots. However, whereas

in Phillips work we engage with a recognisable

person, Raymond piece avoids any potential

idolising of celebrity culture. While the work

might not advertise a fragrance per say perhaps

it is a form of branding of the artist herself or

the mysteriously named Dawn Marble. The pop

strategies at play throughout the installation nod

to Warholian antecedents of the artist as celebrityand the artist as product. The use of a possible

nom de plume in relation to a commercial

fragrance similarly acknowledges the legacy

of Duchamp.

The trailer-like qualities and length of the

video work is also comparable to contemporary

artist Francesco Vezzolis advertisements for

imaginary products featuring real celebrities.

But while Philips and Vezzolis work can becritiqued for a lack of criticality, for an apparent

caving in on itself of meaning,ETERNAL

establishes moments of transcendence and

beauty that short circuit the innite loop of

consumer culture. Or rather, they make a glitch

in this loop. The arbitrary relationship between

product and ad inETERNAL is our glitch. As

is Raymonds choice to exhibit a male body

rather than a female one, which although not

unusual, proves a subtle feminist stroke wherethe work could easily have featured yet another

womans body for viewing. At the same time,

the objectifying gaze, regardless of who it looks

at, is troubling in the work. Combined with the

uncertain, eerie atmosphere of the installation

including the religious undertones of the sweaters,

it can seem like perhaps Dawn Marble is a

sinister businesswoman targeting new markets.

Raymonds installation transcends in that it is

about this moment - it images and mediates on

our obsessions that even with our knowledge weseem incapable of breaking free from. It draws

on both the disgusting and moving elements of

advertising rather than reducing such a prevalent

element of our lives to a negative or as a real

perfume ad might do make us feel inadequate.

Conversely the work is partially humorous. In

conversation Raymond noted that the sweaters

were constructed from a template a knock-off

she found in an op shop and had worn often. She

said that part of the inspiration for this work wasto draw on the responses people would make to

her when she wore the sweater; they were usually

somewhere between jealousy and horror. It is the

potentiality that exists between these points that

lendsETERNALits criticality and its ability to

disquiet and discomfort while at the same time

revel in all that is glamorous and grotesque.

SILL FROM ECHNO SLAMMING MOONSCAPE NIRVANA PHOOGENIC, 2012

Edited by Bronwyn Haines

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Eternal Dawn1