Pablo Bronstein's 'Regency living' at the ICA

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Seihee Shon explores 'Pablo Bronstein: Sketches for Regency Living'

Known for its place at the head of the British avant-garde, this time the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) looks back to the 19th century, exploring its regency identity in conjunction with Pablo Bronstein’s exhibition, ‘Sketches for Regency Living’. I remember my first visit to the ICA, which occupies a white ‘classical’ Georgian building on the Mall, stretched across from Trafalgar Square towards Buckingham Palace, facing the wide-open green field of St James’s Park. I was overwhelmed by the sudden spatial extension taking place immediately after the monumental archway leading from the busily crowded Trafalgar Square. Even more impressive was the experimental contemporary art encountered after entering through the classical façade.

Pablo Bronstein’s architectural intervention has physically and conceptually transformed the gallery space into a theatrical stage. The artist has literally brought the stage to the white cube. First of all, Tragic Stage in the downstairs gallery providing a venue for unusual ballet performance has been created by removing the side wall completely. The short barrier that has been reconstructed plays a role as a boundary between performing space and viewing area, proclaiming a clear distinction between performers who act in a particular way to be seen and the others to see. Only the performers have the privilege of being on stage. The dancers, in costumes of  sophisticated design, walk and move slowly and elegantly. Sometimes they gesture as if to suggest or to propose something to somebody but they do not seem interested in listening to the answer. They look more excited about displaying themselves with an air of superiority. Their beautiful bodily gesture is, therefore, pretentious and narcissistic. This extraordinary dance, choreographed by Bronstein, refers to the Georgian aristocrats’ obsession with overt demonstration of their high class.

If you go further down inside the gallery, this time you see not only a stage but also a whole theatre. The scene might appear out of place, as the exterior of a theatre is set oddly in the interior of a gallery room. Giving a sense of daylight, artificial light dramatically reflects the pale white surface of the theatre topped with ornaments, and then plunges into a deep Regency blue. The stage of the Regency Box is ready for a performance and fully equipped chairs are awaiting their audience. Members of the audience watching the performance in the white box theatre would themselves be watched by gallery viewers looking around the theatre. Suggesting a show within a show, the box from which to see is there to be seen.

Alongside a staircase leading to the top floor, over 60 drawings of Designs for the Ornamentation of Middle Class Houses are fun to see. They look identical at first glance, but they actually differ from one another. The way in which they are hung and small changes in each of the drawings make them look as if they are performing, secretly transforming parts of their body like ballet dancers changing their gesture.

This performative air continues onto the upper gallery where there is another event happening. It is a demonstration by a member of the gallery staff revealing secrets of a giant cabinet and a set of two console tables. You would never know, without unfolding them, that the cabinet has a table in it – to transform it into an office – and that two rectangular tables together become a campaign bed. The metamorphic furniture sits as if the surface is all there is, hiding all the functional and practical things beneath a decorative, smart look.

Bronstein portrays Regency living critically, from a 21st-century perspective and explores politics and economics behind social convention and architectural practices. In talking about architecture we talk about the people who inhabit it, as the artist mentioned in a conversation (Art Review, summer, 2011). So his works, combining architectural painting and performing art, are about people, our lives and our society. The artist invites viewers to enjoy the performance-saturated show, providing an opportunity to rethink truths about our society that might usually be concealed or ignored.