Matthew Miles explores fragments of London at The Urethra Postcard Art of Gilbert and George…
This new show from the most famous couple in art is not as bold, or as immediately beautiful, as some of their previous high-profile exhibitions. If you’re seeking the shock-factor of series such as the ‘Naked Shit Pictures’ you might be disappointed, but dig deep and there’s layer after layer beneath the mass-produced surfaces of ‘The Urethra Postcard Art of Gilbert and George’.
With 564 works piled high on the walls, and each featuring 13 postcards set out in exactly the same pattern, the exhibition is a tad daunting at first glance. From tourist shop views of Trafalgar Square to Union Jacks and the calling cards of gay or transgender sex workers, all the sets are laid out to form an angulated version of the sign of urethra, used by one-time theosophist C. W. Leadbetter (1853–1934) to accompany his signature.
The urethra carries semen out of men’s bodies and urine out of a female’s – production for some, and waste for others. And for me, this show is about the ebb and flow of the big city – the industry and consumption; the new and the redundant; the opportunities for anonymity and rebellious self-expression that exist simultaneously in places like London.
With health awareness messages next to patriotic chest-beating and rose-tinted views of historical landmarks, the show confronts us with hundreds of adverts. But the deeper connection is in imagining the lives on the other side of the cards – the people that bought them, scrawled messages on the back or tried to forget their wife as they phoned that S&M sex-worker.
Having a quick chat with Gilbert & George at the private view were Tracey Emin; Stephen Fry; Jay Jopling; Bianca Jagger; Courtney Love; Alan Yentob; Pandemonia and Konrad Wyrebek.
You start to imagine possibilities. What’s happened to ‘Transsexual Linda new in town’? Is she still out there, or does she have a new name online or in another city?
Some of the cards had a more personal tug and I began to wonder how I pictured my own future – the times I crossed Oxford Street in the mid-nineties, when a so-garish-it’s-tropical image of blue sky and red Routemaster buses was produced.
Konrad Wyrebek and friend
For big city people with a little time to spare, a visit to White Cube Mayfair could get you closer to the chaos and diversity of a seemingly anonymous and ordered place. Wish you were there?
Gilbert & George: The Urethra Postcard Art of Gilbert & George runs until 19 Feb 2011 at White Cube, Mason’s Yard.
Matthew Miles is a freelance arts and culture writer, photographer and video producer. To see more of his work visit: www.matthewmilescreative.blogspot.com