Holly White: Videos, Holly White at David Dale
3.5/5 stars
‘Holly White: Videos’ was my introduction to Holly White, and was a pretty slow burn. I started off in the warehouse space and wasn’t sold. The structure of the screening implied a chronological order to the films and I felt that this didn't fit the work shown and held me at arms length. After the rocky start, I was shocked to find that the main gallery space was rich and interesting, and offered little glimpses into a world which felt both totally authentic and completely performative. The dichotomy of this seemed to come from the contrast of the completely staged situations with the candid, awkward presentation, which feels too ‘homemade’ to be fake. In ‘Supermarket Cafe’ for example, the bad and sarcastic acting created an underlying sense of authenticity. Even when the subject matter was painfully slow, like in ‘Mystery Chocolate Taste Test’, a sense of guilty pleasure drove me to keep watching.
To this end, I really liked the curation of the main gallery. The curtains created a strange effect on the space, a feeling like a bedroom or dimly lit party, and the videos felt like a youtube channel. In this context I could dip in and out of any screen, not having to commit to finishing anything or watching anything in order. I rarely see this in video exhibitions, and felt that it made the bits I did see of each video suck me in even more. I thought this was also incredibly appropriate given the millennial feeling that White’s work has. But maybe because of my lack of millennial nostalgia, I couldn't really connect to the show on deeper levels (I think this is the main issue for me with the rest of White’s work I’ve seen since). I still think the show was interesting and contemplative, just as much for the parts I didn’t like as the parts I did, but I feel that something more serious drowns in the subject matter of White’s work. Overall I hope another exhibition of White’s work comes up again soon and I can continue to wade through it, but I hope there is something more to find.
