Taken back in Time with Suzanne Treister
The Ryder Projects Gallery in Madrid have drawn towards the end a major retrospective of the UK artist, Suzanne Treister work with a private viewing of her most extensive video games inspired masterpiece, "Time Travelling with Rosalind Brodsky". Suzanne is a multi-talented artist who pioneered video art when it was in its infancy in the 1990's. Her work entails a vast range of topical issues dealing with popular entertainment, biology, esoteric beliefs and psychology but with an underlying emphasis on what exactly is power, and how is it manipulated. "Time Travelling with RS" is a summation of almost all these themes, as a game console type interface introduces the player to Treister's alter ego, Rosalind Brodsky. Brodsky worked for IMATI (The Institute of Militronics and Advanced Time Intentionality) but comes under increasing stress due to the institute's subversive intentions to manipulate history. In her troubled mental state, she becomes delusional and believes she can actually travel back and forth in time. However, her choices of locations are idiosyncratic in nature, and are orientated as much to her particular interests and history than any ouvert altruism to save the world. To finance her projects, Brodsky sells sexual aids, such as celebrity vibrators and runs a regular time-travel cookery program which is comedy satire at its best.
Treister devoted at least three years on the project, starting in 1995 and finishing around 1998 but still continues to promote her famous personality through performances, international exhibitions and publications. Her work purposefully challenges stereotypical subject matter usually associated with the gaming genre as well as combing a rather nostalgic nod to the by gone days of cultural revolutions, be it the 1960's, Russia or popular entertainment. Her rye humour permeates throughout the various levels you are invited to explore and although the graphics are now dated and jittery, there is a poignant relationship in the piece that relates to identity and our psychological response to two centuries in constant flux.
Personal thanks to The Ryder Projects Gallery's director, Patricia Lara for being so supportive in my reporting and allowing me to produce the video which captured excerpts from the viewing on 8 November. Other great exhibitions are in the pipeline so do follow their website; https://theryderprojects.com/. It's also well worth visiting Treister's own web site to gain many more insights into this project. https://www.suzannetreister.net/suzyWWW/