The Curatorial Backlogs #1 : Surrender by Jenkin Van Zyl

Artist : Jenkin van Zyl 

Show : Surrender

Location : Edel Assanti Gallery : London, England 

Date Seen: 7 February 2023

Price : Free

Run Time: 19 January 2023 - 4 March 2023

Surrender by Jenkin van Zyl is an immersive exhibition which was built around a 49 minute film Zyl created in 2023 titled Surrender. Surrender, the film, focuses on the plot of four rat-people couples in a hotel as they compete in increasingly strange tournaments that push the body’s limits through a psychotropic lens. The challenges are memorialized through trophies, and towers of energy drinks. The exhibition utilizes imagery of rats combined with people to create an alternative world. The video plays on a loop and was created in a way so that the beginning seems to be the end, and the end seems to be the beginning. The installation of Surrender seemingly recreates scenes and rooms from the show and invites the viewer into them. This exhibition is Zyl’s first solo exhibition, though his work has been seen in many other shows prior. Zyl is a local artist and filmmaker based out of London whose work typically combines film, performance art, writing and sculpture through immersive installations built around films he produces. 

Notes:

• Enter the exhibition through the mouth of a giant silver inflatable rat head that goes from the floor to the ceiling. When watching the video, you see this inflatable rat head entrance is used in the film as well. This entrance to the show can be seen through the large glass doors/windows of the front of the gallery from the outside, intriguing viewers from the outside and enticing them in to view the strange world Zyl creates. 

• The hallway that leads to the room showing the film was built in the gallery space. It has fake walls and exposed pipes and low red and yellow lighting. It creates the feeling of being IN the wall (like a rat). 

• The main room of the exhibition is set up like a dorm/camp style room with four twin sized beds in a row and a nightstand to the side of each bed. It is a constructed room with a desk in the corner, carpet on the ground and a screen facing opposite the beds. The banners hanging from the ceiling and the color palette of the constructed room mirror that of those seen in the film. The viewer is invited to get comfortable on the floor or on the beds to watch the film. 

• Depending on how many people are in the gallery, it can get quite crowded. When crowded, the viewer may not find a space to sit and get comfortable. It is quite a long film, and not very enjoyable if you must stand the entire duration. For this reasoning, timed tickets may have been useful to help orchestrate flow and comfort for the viewer. 

• The last space in the exhibit mimics the winners' spaces. The floor is coated with a silver reflective material, and the window is covered in a way that is intentionally dirty - keeping the viewer unaware of the outside world except for one clear and clean circle on the window exposing the room to the outside world. More recreated aspects from the film are found (towers of the energy drinks, the rat/human face trophies, more banners, etc.) It maintains the unsettling atmosphere created throughout the exhibition. 

• There is another exhibition by Si On in the basement of the gallery as well. This exhibition feels like an afterthought and could have been better supported or run at a different time all together. In the exhibtion, the artists name could easily go unnoticed and be confused with the concepts/works being shown downstairs. This small secondary show did not add to what was happening at the rest of the gallery at the time.

• The show had no plaques or information available to the viewer on site other than a wall text which simply read the title of the show and the artist's name.  No context provided about the theme or meanings of the Zyl’s work. Information had to be found online in order to gain context.  

• Exit the same way you enter