Wednesday, August 12, 2026

"Poetry goes no further than language: A historical moment of art becoming art again" (Buxton Contemporary)

Spotlighting the work of a small collective of Chinese artists in the 1980s-90s who called themselves 'New Measurement Group' and aspired to create art that eliminated 'anti-rationalist' elements - spiritual, directly emotional and in any sense subjective - this exhibition reminded me how deep it's possible to go with art, philosophy and the intersection of the two; the work itself didn't move me at all, and probably neither was it meant to. Interspersed were the relative sweetness of Darcey Bella Arnold's responses, including her orange peels, and finally "A Pipe is not a Poem" - which resonated interestingly with several of the individual artists' works (when not working as part of the collective) holding strong surrealist elements.