Liam Gillick's 2010 Casey Kaplan Exhibition Features Benches, Prints, and Video

Liam Gillick presented an exhibition at Casey Kaplan Gallery in New York City from February 18 to March 27, 2010. The show included colorful aluminum benches called 'Discussion Bench Platforms,' sixteen unique inkjet prints, and a video titled 'Everything Good Goes.' The prints juxtaposed German Renaissance woodcut imagery with contemporary dialogue from Gillick's play 'A Volvo Bar,' creating striking visual and conceptual tension. The video featured the artist working on a 3D computer model of a factory from Jean-Luc Godard's 1972 film 'Tout va Bien,' accompanied by a phone conversation with the Fly collective about the modeling process. Unlike Gillick's previous red benches at Parsons' 'Democracy in the Age of Branding' show curated by Carin Kuoni, which fostered discussion in a circular, utopian arrangement, the rectangular benches at Casey Kaplan faced walls and functioned more as seating for viewing drawings. The gallery space at 525 West 21st Street was described as limited and sterile compared to Parsons' windowed gallery on 13th Street. While the prints engaged viewers aesthetically and conceptually, the video's dense soundtrack and disparity between audio and visual components made it unwelcoming and esoteric. The exhibition's three distinct bodies of work—benches, prints, and video—failed to coalesce into a layered experience, remaining cerebrally engaging but visually disjointed.