Commissioned by Collective, Hateball was an installation of new film, video and sculptural works. In Hateball, Mellors presents a tokenistic 'global view'; an East versus West structure in which the different representative works compete with and undermine each other's positions. The idea of abstraction as a potentially threatening force permeates this exhibition.
In the centre, the idea of political struggle is invoked through a party-political broadcast by MACGOOHANSOC, in which a seven foot tall woman claims to be possessed by the spirit of Patrick McGoohan, and spouts a semi-fascistic dictum. The film is informed by McGoohan's highly original 1967 T.V. series The Prisoner, but has taken on its own mutant purpose. Entering to witness the dying thoughts of a Polish supercomputer (BrainOne), and finishing with a re-staging of the final scene from Sylvester Stallone's original Rambo movie First Blood, Hateball further elaborates Mellors's own brand of constructive misanthropy and offers up a vivid, idiosyncratic exploration of contemporary art's capacity for social and political content.
Artist Talk, 25 June 2005, 2pm
Nathaniel Mellors led in an informal talk about some of the themes within the exhibition.
Download the exhibition information here
This is an archived programme entry.
