MashUp: The Birth of Modern Culture, Vancouver Art Gallery, Feb. 20 to June 12, 2016

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The creative practice of mashup, inventive art forms that use wide-ranging materials and processes from across cultures, has become increasingly widespread since the 1990s. It’s thus surprising that it’s taken this long to yield a major international exhibition expanding this lineage from collage, montage and the readymade through to the digital age of hacking, remix and interrogating the archive. So kudos to the Vancouver Art Gallery for both staking out this critical territory and executing a breathtaking show replete with 371 works from 156 artists, assembled by a team of 30 curators. Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Hannah Höch are bookended with Dara Birnbaum, Geoffrey Farmer and DJ Spooky.

Such a roster is a remarkable achievement in and of itself, and I use the term breathtaking because my daylong sojourn was awe-inspiring, but also exhausting. It reminded me of my first trip to the Louvre, whence you realize it’s simply impossible to take it all in during one visit. In the instance of MashUp, it’s not the scale of the venue that’s at play, but rather the scope of the installation and the assault on the senses of much of the more recent work.

This is not to decry the quality of the art or exhibition design. Rather it’s a reflection of both contemporary “glocal” culture, and the manner in which a collision of art worlds has objectified it, and us. As Amber Frid-Jimenez, a professor at Emily Carr University, writes in the doorstopper of a catalogue, “the emphasis in image culture has shifted from quality to speed, from contemplation to distraction.” But make no mistake: this is a must-see show. Just plan to arrive early, take breaks in the fresh air, and find a quiet relaxing place for lunch … before you return.

Conceptually, I found strong connections between the re-creation of Luigi Russolo’s Futurist intonarumori (noise machines) and a range of more recent alignments, notably fusions with British acid-house band KLF’s What the Fuck is Going On?, Japanese artist Ujino’s sound sculptures, and DJ Tubby’s mixing board.  

With the exhibition running in reverse chronological order from the ground floor up, visitors can discern the more perspicacious of artists and works amidst the earlier canons of art history and cultural theory. Standouts in the filmic realm – I see celluloid as a durational umbilical cord – are a high-resolution multi-screen installation of Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle (foregrounding speed and distraction) that contrasts with a cozy projection space showing a suite of Jean-Luc Godard films (ahhh, some slow quality and contemplation).

In summation, there’s curatorial rigour, particularly where newer practices are integrated into the show’s trajectory. I learned most from the works of the last few decades, but these projects actually close first, a month before the earlier and better-known artistry.

For those who miss this tour de force-cum-Gesamtkunstwerk, the 351-page catalogue is worth considering: it’s a contender for heir apparent to Robert Hughes’ 1980 canonical art text, The Shock of the New.

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