thu 12/12/2024

Nathaniel Mellors, ICA | reviews, news & interviews

Nathaniel Mellors, ICA

Nathaniel Mellors, ICA

Words without meaning, meaning without words in these films

Annalise Maddox-Wilson putting a stop to handyman Bobby's words

I will confess, the emotion which engulfed me when watching three films from Nathaniel Mellors’s Ourhouse series was not (initially) admiration but aggravation. The temporary plyboard cinemas of the ICA show episodes one, two and four of this pseudo-drama about the bohemian Maddox-Wilson family in their country house, whose communications start to go terribly wrong after a betracksuited man called The Object turns up, and with every passing minute I grew more frustrated even as I laughed.

I will confess, the emotion which engulfed me when watching three films from Nathaniel Mellors’s Ourhouse series was not (initially) admiration but aggravation. The temporary plyboard cinemas of the ICA show episodes one, two and four of this pseudo-drama about the bohemian Maddox-Wilson family in their country house, whose communications start to go terribly wrong after a betracksuited man called The Object turns up, and with every passing minute I grew more frustrated even as I laughed.

The Object, in the second film, tears pages from a book and chews them up; he regurgitates them as juicy, saliva-soaked pulp

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