SuperflexBy Martin Coomer
Published: April 1, 2009
 
Courtesy South London Gallery
Superflex, still from "Flooded McDonald's" (2008). Film, 20 min.
London January 16 – March 1, 2009 Take one globally branded fast-food restaurant, add thousands of gallons of water, and, bon appétit, you have Superflex’s Flooded McDonald’s (2008). Naturally, the Danish collective weren’t allowed to aim their hoses at one of the company’s speedy-service eateries in order to make their film. The interior we see on a large screen in the darkened gallery is a painstakingly created replica, albeit a strangely retro-looking one, bereft of people but fully stocked. As water starts to pour in — gradually filling the restaurant from floor to countertop — the rising tide brings inevitable thoughts of disaster. We might stop short of imagining those Biblical fountains of the great deep, but it’s pretty clear that Superflex’s message is one of environmental doom. Yet if this was just a blunt critique of consumerism and climate change, or a heavy-handed case of schadenfreude, Flooded McDonald’s would seem like a very long twenty minutes. It doesn’t because the film is full of unlikely beauty, as when the camera dives below the waterline to capture shoals of fries. There’s good humor in the editing as well — from the portentous opening shot of dripping juice dispensers, to the lovely image of an unmoored Wet Floor sign, to the toppling of a Ronald McDonald statue that bobs about, waving and not drowning. Their message flavored with the necessary condiments of grace and wit, Superflex charm as they chide — a useful strategy when dealing with a liberal-arts audience and potentially litigious megacorporations. "Superflex" originally appeared in the April 2009 issue of Modern Painters. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Modern Painters' April 2009 Table of Contents.
|
advertisements
|
Save to Del.icio.us
Digg this