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MMK Frankfurt 27 October to 31 March
The initial work you see in MMK's airy entrance hall is Publyck Sculpture, 1994, three tyre swings suspended with chains hanging from aluminium over wooden posts. The structure is gleaming and precise, the pristine tyres still have their original manufacturer label on them and you see the subtle wood grain over the surface of the metal. It's a kind of post-minimalist gallows for American ideology and consumerism and it works as a condensed example for the rest of Cady Noland's practice: the public, violence, gaze, objectification ... it's all in there. Frankfurt's MMK is a postmodern wedge-like building designed by Hans Hollein in 1991 and its interior is full of complex shapes, awkward hallways, unexpected side rooms, curves and triangles that direct your attention in different ways with pauses and surprise encounters. The installation of the show feels generous, confident and also playful as Noland makes use of every aspect of the building. Some works are left incidentally placed (set aside, nearly hidden within corridors, are metal baskets of lights, metal bars, beer cans, motor oil) in often subtle or minor positions that let works be discovered, giving them a personal presence. In one corridor near the main stairs is a print collaboration with Diana Balton, Eat Yer Fuckin Face Off!!, easily missed 6ft above eye level. MMK's sometimes confusing structure and incidental side rooms also add another layer of intimacy to these encounters; you veer off the main corridor and find yourself alone in a...