After leaving the White cube I believed once again that art could be my salvation. So I gallantly proceeded to go to the Elmgreen and Dragset show at the Victoria Miro Gallery now called ‘The Mirror’! The show’s premise is to space¬†the gap between reality and installation, the concept relies on you knowing that the gallery became a club for a night. I could only see it as a mix of installation and an excuse for a party as far as I could make out.As you walk in you approach a desk, the walls are black, the desk is black, as you look into the expanse of the gallery it seems dark and vacant. I proceeded, and nearly walked into an arrangement of neatly sectioned bottles. There are light of varying colours, a dance floor and a very large disco ball surrounded by a sofa. On the walls there are hidden pictures of naked men, I think that they were pole dancing. I stood in the middle of the room thinking, what is this trying to do? I tend to have a response to most situations, this left me with nothing. The problem that I found was that you needed to have the party atmosphere surrounding you to be a part of the concept. Then again would it not be strange to be sober in this situation, do you not have to be drinking, dancing and doing other things to be involved in the whole experience? Another aspect that was commented when talking about the show to friends was that it was ‘missing the smell, the floor was too tidy’. I agreed wholeheartedly. The only aspect of the show that had a synergy between art and that club atmosphere, was in the toilets were the tubes for the sink were tied together, a newspaper was placed on the floor and two sets of legs occupied one cubicle. These were amusing but were shallow in meaning when compared to Kabakov or Red Grooms.

On exploring upstairs you find yourself blocked by the VIP room door, which could be another little swipe at the concepts of clubs but I feel that it was more likely to make the whole space smaller, and also to highlight the arrangement of photographs on the wall, which seemed like they would be at home on somebody’s wall. Their naughty holiday snap qualities didn’t engage me and it didn’t fit within the whole context of the show very well.

As an aside, aren’t you supposed to forget 90% of a good night anyway? That allows you the fun of trying to piece the bits of memory back together in the morning.