Andreas Gursky at White Cube Bermondsey

I visited White Cube gallery in Bermondsey to see Andreas Gursky’s exhibition, his first in London since 2007.  Gursky is a visual artist creates very large format photographs of landscapes, and the structures of industrial capitalism.  He uses aspects of high and low visual culture, to examine industry, leisure and consumerism.  “…ideas of authenticity, ownership and control in our increasingly digitised age.

I was fascinated by the high-viewpoint and panoramic scope of his photographs, and the way he creates intricate composites and layers which caused me to want to keep on looking and searching through his works.  He plays with the very large against the very tiny, in a dizzying way.  I am intrigued as to how he makes his constructions.

I liked the uneasy “Kathedrale” in particular, a composite of giant stained glass windows that are shown in black and white.  On first glance, they appear repetitive until you look closer.  In the foreground, are a set of tiny figures dwarfed by and seemingly gazing up at the glass structure.  Two of the figures are “photographing” it, next to a pile of dirt? a grave?.  I think of the worship of icons and Biblical references to the worship of Mammon.

In his series of “May Day” pieces, he photographs an overwhelming mass of people who seem to be at a music festival.  The sense of distance and depth in May Day IV is particularly striking.  There are groups of people in tight circles of light, looking inwards to each other, but all are looking off into the side distance at something.    I think of constellations, dislocation, disorientation, and rubbish piles simultaneously, “the flotsam and jetsam of daily life.” 

I find the White Cube space quite intimidating due to its size and its doors which are really hard to open!  However, I can see how these works need to be displayed in this kind of space, and I recommend a visit to this exhibition.