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From: Eva Category: Art Date: 15 September 2008 Time: 08:38 AM Review: Maybe I’d have been less disappointed if I’d not queued to get in, but I doubt it. Roger Hiorns has taken a council flat in a block due to be demolished and covered the inside in sulphate crystals. I can see what he’s attempting to do – transform ‘the everyday’ into a ‘magical’, cavernous, extra-terrestrial place. I imagined this was the effect he was aiming at while experiencing the work and tried, well at least a bit, to enter into the spirit of the thing. But, ultimately, this spectacle didn’t work for me. The queuing did more than build up expectations, it also gave me time to look around and to think about the perceived value of the architecture of the block about to be demolished, to think about the transformation of the Elephant and Castle area, and to contemplate how beautifully the last of the summer sunlight shone through the overgrown foliage of the estate’s central courtyard. Entering the flat from this position, the over-mannered artifice of the installation did not trigger any further thoughts on this particular place, the mourning or celebration of it, or some acknowledgement of the lives lived between these doomed walls. I’m familiar with Hiorns previous sulphate works and, basically, this installation is just like walking into one of them. It could be anywhere – if greater resonance is achieved by the fact that it is in a crumbling, boarded-up estate and not in a gallery then this feels like Hiorns is leeching off the place, rather than properly responding to it. Artangel gives the work a lot of credibility and there’s even a ritual involved in seeing it – swapping shoes for wellies, leaving bags, wearing special gloves. Once inside I wasn’t so sure why this little performance was necessary, it’s a tiny room and the sulphate crystals were pretty much fixed by this stage. I stayed longer than I probably needed to and ensured I’d taken many photographs, how else could I justify waiting for 15 minutes to go in.