Mungo Thompson - artist; / WALL, WINDOW OR BAR SIGNS /
I was not impressed with this show at all! (disclaimer, I like neon sculpture and have experimented with it myself) I will enumerate the reasons why here:
1. I didn't find any bar signs. The half full / half empty neon sculpture was repeated twice: once in the window another time in the gallery space. Frankly, overall it didn't work for me at all.
2. okay phrases, in one of them Mungo is thanking himself and signing it "Bruce Nauman". Frankly, I don't think BN... Additionally, the work seemed really dated: a swirl, reminding one of a donut but not a donut; uninteresting choice of font, and very static.
3. Did i want sculpture to flicker even at least once, like the neon signs used to do, or to make a noise like the neon signs used to do? Yes... I waited and waited, and nothing happened - it seemed too easy, not engaging at all.
4. Did I want the work to be more legible (the choice of font was a mystery to me)? Yes!
5. Man, did I want to be able to at least photograph the damn signs? Yes, and nothing worked, I mean everythign is just one large neon sign, not legible. I went to the Kadist website and even they couldnt' get a good picture of the work so that one can read the text of the sculpture. But not to worry, read the next one.
6. For $75 you may obtain the artist book with many swirly phrases in it, about 200 pages. Not clear to me, though, whether these phrases were ever sculpture at all or an extension of the existing sculpture pieces.
