Michael Landy: Breaking News
Michael Landy’s Breaking News is a must-see. First shown in the late spring of 2015 at Galerie Sabine Kunst in Munich, here in his Vyner Street studio Landy revisits a presentational mode that harkens back to some of his finest moments in shows made ‘at home’ on Fashion Street, or at the Oval’s City Racing and even his debut of Scrapheap Services (1993–1995) shown at Chisenhale.
Working through hundreds of drawings on torn paper and constructed through a rigorous procedure of removing a topcoat of white to reveal an under-painted ground of cadmium red, Michael Landy marches through a forest of signs, symbols and slogans from our frenzied moment of politics, culture and economy. As befits the mode of presentation, Landy samples episodes from his own practice and historical output gathering up fragmentary markers laid down during his iconic Closing Down Sale at Karsten Schubert in 1992, or even the epic event and conjuncture in his practice that was Breakdown.
As is ever in Landy’s practice, procedural guidelines are in place and closely followed, and which, like any grid, these allow for a maximum of chaos and semblance of freedom in Breaking News. For a privileged view into the work and methods of one of Britain’s most important artists and a kaleidoscopic reading of the flotsam and jetsam from our mediated moment, visit Michael Landy’s studio.
Michael Landy: Breaking News is on show at Thomas Dane Gallery at Michael Landy Studio, 60–62 Vyner Street, E2, October 2-November 1, 2015. Open Wednesday to Saturday, 11:00–18:00; Sunday, 12:00–18:00.
John Slyce is a senior lecturer for the Modern & Contemporary Art course at Christie’s Education London.
A version of this article was originally published on the C# blog on October 26, 2016.
