Chiharu Shiota & Jitish Kallat – Haunch of Venison, W1S

Chiharu Shiota: incidental beauty

Chiharu Shiota’s 20-foot high spiral of window panes is as spectacular as is sounds, but begs a little chin-stroking. Far better is the room next door, where she’s strung miles of black wool through the whole thing in a dense network that fills the whole space. Looked at from any angle new coincidences form and there’s incidental beauty. She doesn’t succeed as well when she does the same thing on a smaller scale for a few smaller networks, which entrap suitably gothick objects (lightbulbs, white frocks, and a trumpet). Full marks for room 2, then.

Across the bridge is Jitish Kallat, whose exhibition as a whole resembles the portfolio of a talented ad man, from his film of vegetable x-rays in space to his naff ‘roti moon’. However, he has fine moments, in particular some Mumbai street scenes made into paradise with verdant grass airbrushed over the tarmac. A rabble of six-inch figurines (including policemen) engaged in an extremely violent brawl is worth seeing, as is a wall filled with photos of people’s shirt pockets containing various useful objects. It’s characteristic of the thing, though, that this is followed by some cringeworthy bone letters spelling out dada poetry round the staircase.