Art Gallery

Didactic Conceptualism

REVIEWED BY CHARLES LONBERGER

The installation of Stephen G. Rhodes at the Hammer Museum in Westwood is an exercise in Conceptualism, so clearly so as to be didactic.

Rhodes’ concept is a metaphor for a materialistic way of life that is falling apart, and an implicit Socialist criticism of a crumbling society.

Accordingly, elegant lighting fixtures are attached to a dwelling, which is in an advanced stage of dilapidation. Its interior is filled with half-eaten fruit, genteel furniture covered in dust, with accents, like an uncared for piano, suggesting a decaying culture.

Although the exhibit restricts itself to a negative observation only, the underlying logic of the concept is a regurgitation of Marxist thought, which has already been historically discredited.

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