A
room at Tate Modern is devoted to a work by Romanian artist Ana Lupas (b. 1940),
titled The Solemn Process
(1964-2008). It comprises 21 metal
objects, a display in harmony with the industrial setting of the Bankside power
station. There are also two large sets
of sepia photographs in a 5x8 grid at either end of the gallery showing straw
objects of varying shapes, many like doughnut rings. Some are shown in conjunction with
individuals, but these are not your typical agricultural products.
The
shape is the key, as the metal objects share similar dimensions to some of the
objects in the photographs. In the first
phase of the project, 1964-74, Lupas worked collaboratively with villagers in
Transylvania to create these oddly-shaped straw and clay sculptures using
techniques based on those employed to make harvest festival wreaths and in
house building. The results were
photographed at various locations in the open air. Unfortunately in the early- and mid-1970s the
worsening political and economic climate halted their production.
Between
1980 and 1985 Lupas attempted to reverse the decay to which the organic
structures were subject. This was not successful
so in the third phase, between 1985 and 2008, the objects were encased in metal
to mimic the shape of the originals. It
may not have preserved them but it did hide the decay and gave an idea of the
original shapes. The final products bore
a resemblance to the original sculptures in that respect, but nothing else, and
might be seen as a betrayal of the original impulse to create an artwork using
ephemeral materials that would eventually exist only in the photographic record
and the memories of its witnesses.
What
is surprising is that the initial stage was carried out during the Communist
period, when one might have expected such works to be frowned on, with
depictions of peasants producing something which could actually be eaten favoured
by the regime. On the other hand, she
was demonstrating that ordinary everyday objects and processes could be
utilised in the name of art, whether playful or, as here, solemn. One wonders what the locals who had the wreaths
hanging around made of them; they are missing from the narrative.
