Terry Urbahn video installation: The Sacred Hart
St.Matthew–in–the-City
Festival Event
9 March - 12 March 2009 10 am - 10 pm.
This is one of those so-called community art projects that people ooh and aah over when they hear the proposal but which in actuality causes disappointment when they realise it is not what they thought it would be. It is two and a half hours of tedium that will be totally baffling to Aucklanders, as it was made for New Plymouth audiences. Even Taranaki people though, will find it hard to stick around for more than ten minutes.
The idea is a filmed gathering of about a dozen people having a ’last supper’ in the downstairs bar of the White Hart, the well known pub across the street from the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. All various people who at different times used to frequent the bar. Not a bad idea for a project, it should be good. The people include an ex-Govett-Brewster director (John McCormack); a local artist (Don Driver) very briefly; a couple of members of the local resident bike gang, the Magogs, one whom became a city councillor; the owner of a local CD and music store; and some earlier owners of the hotel.
The problem is that it is far too long, and the conversation (what little you can hear of it) is hardly sparkling. However visually it is sensational, and rich in allusions to Derek Jarman’s ‘Caravaggio’ and Peter Greenaway’s ‘The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.’ The candle-lit feast held on a very long table looks wonderful set up in front of the bar. The camera on a dolly slowly moves backwards and forwards, out and away and back again.
To make the installation the back-projected screen is set into a steep arch on the left-hand side of the church’s interior. Close by, in front and to one side, is a replica of the famous carved deer that stands on the roof of the pub. Urbahn’s version has a woman’s front left foot.
Terry Urbahn is a highly respected artist – originally from New Plymouth - who very rarely makes fizzers like this. Affable and loquacious in temperament, he often creates art with communities he interacts with normally in his ‘non-art’ life - like rugby teams, surfie groups, or rock bands. Here I think, his affection for his friends and home town caused a lapse in proposal planning judgement. He's a very persuasive personality. The results here show that to be a pity.
