Jamie Isenstein
Andrew Kreps, New York, USA
One can forgive Jamie Isenstein the fancy, Frenchification of her exhibition title, ‘Acéphal Magical’, once one has enjoyed the elegant and ingenious show itself. Acephalous individuals are headless, and there are a great many of those here: centre-stage is Saw the Lady (all works 2007), a magician’s box with a body apparently sawn in two at the neck; a pair of patent leather shoes poke out at the end of one compartment, while the head may or may not be contained in a separate box at the end. In Clap Magic, a more metaphorical rehearsal of the theme, Isenstein places a monitor, showing two applauding hands, in front of a standing lamp that flicks on and off at the sound of a clap. Here, the slender lamp-stand represents a body, while the head is metaphorically chopped off each time the hands – themselves apparently severed – make a sound.
In the most inventive piece, Acéphal Magical (2007), Isenstein assembles a duet, written specially by composer Paul Damian Hogan, from two short, looping films. In one, a household fan blows air over the spouts of bottles filled to various levels, so as to produce particular sounds, a human head replaced by a machine. In the other, a performer in top hat and tails takes a bow to an old handsaw to make it whine and moan; not only is the moaning sound created without a mouth, but the performer also appears headless, his or her noggin completely enveloped under the enormous hat. Rather felicitously, the upturned brim of the hat curves like a sinister smile.
All this is very entertaining indeed. While Isenstein remains warmly nostalgic for those old fairground tricks, she manages to return to them the with a kind of fearful chill - at the threat of death, the sense of spirit life. However, rather like the proverbial chicken who, having lost its head, doesn’t know where it’s running, Isenstein doesn’t seem to have a larger purpose behind all her chopping. There is elegant nostalgia, and very witty play, but ultimately the metaphor only winds up in the guillotine’s basket, along with the lifeless head.
Morgan Falconer
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