Nancy Spero & Marcus Coates, Serpentine Gallery | reviews, news & interviews
Nancy Spero & Marcus Coates, Serpentine Gallery
Nancy Spero & Marcus Coates, Serpentine Gallery
Angry art with a sense of social responsibility.
Sunday, 13 March 2011
An explosion of shrapnel: Nancy Spero's 'Maypole - Take No Prisoners II' 2008 Installation © 2011 Jerry Hardman-Jones
A maypole greets you on entry to the Serpentine Gallery; don’t expect a cheery celebration of spring, though. Nancy Spero’s installation Maypole: Take No Prisoners II (2008) is a scream of rage against violence and its hapless victims. Dangling from coloured ribbons, dozens of decapitated heads hang in the air like an explosion of shrapnel. Mouths gape open in pain and terror - or is it hatred? One can’t be sure, since some seem to be spitting venom from bloody tongues as though, even in their death throws, they are intent on spreading a gospel of vengeance and destruction.
A maypole greets you on entry to the Serpentine Gallery; don’t expect a cheery celebration of spring, though. Nancy Spero’s installation Maypole: Take No Prisoners II (2008) is a scream of rage against violence and its hapless victims. Dangling from coloured ribbons, dozens of decapitated heads hang in the air like an explosion of shrapnel. Mouths gape open in pain and terror - or is it hatred? One can’t be sure, since some seem to be spitting venom from bloody tongues as though, even in their death throws, they are intent on spreading a gospel of vengeance and destruction.
The penis of Male Bomb has multiplied into five serpentine blades endowed with venomous heads
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