Dark vision draws glowing praise

Thunderous downpours threatened Venice on the eve of the 51st Venice Biennale, as 10,000 influential arts writers, key curators, artists and wealthy collectors arrived by water taxi and vaporetto for the biennial event.

The gathering storm evoked the cloud that hung over the selection of New Zealand's third Biennale representative, Auckland artist et al.

But in the end, a brief deluge from a leaky gutter during the official New Zealand opening was the only dampener. The sun shone for the four-day advance preview, the Vernissage, attended by 3750 people, while et al basked in some glowing critical praise.

Last year, critics asked whether et al, with a reputation for being mysterious and media-shy, was a worthy ambassador for one of the art world's most prestigious international events.

Most of the Biennale's focus is on the Giardini, the tree-lined park housing the permanent pavilions of 30 nations. But arguably the most interesting work is that of the individual artists included in the curators' exhibitions - this year, Maria de Corral's The Experience of Art in the Italian Pavilion, and Rosa Martinez's Always a Little Further in the nearby Arsenale.

On Venice's sidewalks, brash promotional tricks abound. Exhibitions and art media vie for attention using everything from balloons and digital radios, to icecream and canvas shopper bags (the most popular was British artists Gilbert and George's).

Countries enlist their biggest stars (from Australia's Cate Blanchett to Iceland's Bjork) to add pulling power to events. A tribe of Amazonian Indians even turned up to enact a magic ritual for the opening ceremony.

In the evenings, at countless parties and drinks openings, delegates swap tips on the hottest exhibitions.

The Biennale is as much about the hustle as it is about the art. So could et al cut through this clutter and get the work - and, on a wider level, New Zealand arts - noticed?

At least one key arts figure, leading international curator Robert Storr, thought it would.

The director of the Biennale in 2007, Storr awarded et al the Walters Prize in 2004. He said then he believed the artist's work would "stand up very well in Venice". It seems Storr's prediction was prescient.

France won the Golden Lion for best national participation (Annette Messager's reworking of the story of Pinocchio that included a stunning blood-red satin sea). But the New Zealand camp was pleased with comments by one judge.

Senior curator at New York's New Museum of Contemporary Art Dan Cameron described et al's work as "the most intriguing, most interesting set of materials that has come through".

"That has pretty much been the general response," said New Zealand commissioner Greg Burke. "Senior curators from LA to Tokyo are raving about us."

Many critics and curators the Herald spoke to praised et al's dark-yet-humorous vision as well as the use of the exhibition space.

Stockholm's Museum of Modern Art curator Catrin Lundqvist felt the space, with its "scary cages", enhanced the work's "dark vision".

"Everything is so clean and white nowadays, I really like the rawness," said an Irish artist. "It's quite avant garde and rather powerful," was Washington gallerist Dr Joseph DiGangi's reaction.

Playing on the notion of the new voice, et al's The Fundamental Practice resembles a simple yet sinister computer program for generating a belief system that is ultimately redundant.

Housed within metal grey units like monolithic PCs, random recordings of religious, political, philosophical and scientific texts weave in counterpoint. Slightly out of synch, a transcript is partly projected on to a small lecture screen.

Curator and et al spokesperson Natasha Conland describes the work as experiential, with each viewing unique.

For instance, recordings of Arabic and Jewish texts might play against each other but are they discordant or is there an unexpected harmony?

At another point, a disembodied voice intones "certainty is rarely objective, based on no more than a strong feeling".

Perhaps in answer to its critics, one sign asks, "When nothing at all is present, is the awareness of nothing-at-all?"

Wire fences, like those on a construction site, control the viewer's movements. The Fundamental Practice is industrial and laboratory-like. In contrast to the ancient brick walls of the Palazzo Gritti, et al's assistants (and, occasionally, the artist) are dressed in lab coats, and the floor is coated in grey rubber.

The work also references Aotearoa - one of the more overt examples comprises blown-up versions of black and white scenic postcards (the back of which are a space for communication).

As a 21st-century artist, many of et al's reference points are international. This could be read as a particularly New Zealand situation; conscious of our position as observers on the edge of the traditional European centre.

Burke says: "There was criticism of et al for being too European but again I say, go around any pavilion and see if you see anything like it."

Belgium's pavilion - filled with bright blue spaces, intricate, grey tubular structures and free Duvel beer - played on similar themes of process and paradox but in a more playful way.

Highlights included Australian artist Rick Swallow's Killing Time, a set of intricate, still-life wood carvings; Japanese artist Tatsumi Orimoto's Art Mama, which juxtaposes lush images of lace underwear with photos of the scars of war etched on his elderly mother's body, and Canadian Rebecca Belmore's Fountain, a film projected on to falling water, which culminates in a screen of red blood.

After the exhibition closes in November, Creative New Zealand will review New Zealand's past three performances at the Biennale before agreeing to further attendances.