London - Though much narrower in its scope than The Islanders, Elmgreen & Dragset’s exhibition Too Late, at Victoria Miro, managed to transport me as well, making me nostalgic for a scene I’ve never been a part of. In what sounded at first like a self-indulgent proposition, the pair recreated a gay nightclub in the gallery. But I was taken by how well they managed to harness an atmosphere of sexual tension, social revelry and an almost familiar sense of community while imbuing it with the residual aura that comes when the party’s over, when “lights are still blinking and the disco ball sadly spinning, but there’s no-one on the dance floor, and the last round has been served long ago.”
The “missing common social ground” they refer to extends beyond the specifics of any particular scene and instead draws on a collective vulnerability and a shared sense of loss. Makes me wonder where we’ve all gone off to…
Liz Bruchet
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