ORGAN THING: An Idea of Progress, a closer look at Ivan Argote’s banner

I’ve been looking at it for a couple of months now and maybe too engrossed in the arguments that are thrown up, that and the frustration with the building and what does and doesn’t happen in there, the vagueness and such, There was enough about that yesterday – ORGAN THING: Mare Street, An Idea of Progress? Space, Stik, Last Tuesday Society, Ivan Argote, The Cockney Shoe Model, the Regeneration architect, the impact entrepreneur, the futures thinker and Tony Two Vans…

Ivan Argote (detail)

There was enough about the arguments yesterday, but the actual piece of work from Colombian artist Ivan Argote that’s currently hanging on the front of the space building perhaps deserved a little more. The argument yesterday rather swamped what is actually a rather fine piece of work. maybe we’re all too stressed around here to see the actual piece of art rather than the arguments? But then surely the whole point was to throw up argument and debate? The banner out on the busy street taking up the entire front of Space right now is of the canvas type used in front of large-scale construction projects, on it is a series of images drawn in that computer-generated style used in property development brochures to represent the future of a given site. The banner is a fine piece of art, it features an image of a swimming pool, some kind of tropical garden and another of those willy-waving skyscrapers that are violating London right now, alongside the imagery there’s a rather large slogan: “The future’s future is in construction.” The piece itself, the actual imagery rather than the slogan is brilliant, is this how we’d like our buildings to look? Is this out inner city utopia, some kind of post-modern Victoriana? Did the his conversations with the public really result in this imagery. The arguments were thrown up yesterday, the front piece itself is a fine piece of art and an interesting image, is this what we want? Is this what an artist from Columbia now based in Paris concludes we want? A Victorian Disneyland? England’s green and pleasant land? An idea of progress? The arguments were voiced yesterday, frustrations with Space and Coffee festivals aside, this hanging on the front is a clever piece of work from Ivan Argote, an incisive piece, a piece that isn’t without humour, a piece worth actually stopping to look at. (sw)

Further reading – – ORGAN THING: Mare Street, An Idea of Progress? Space, Stik, Last Tuesday Society, Ivan Argote, The Cockney Shoe Model, the Regeneration architect, the impact entrepreneur, the futures thinker and Tony Two Vans…