So…a set of enormous chains hanging from the ceiling interspersed with what look like crowns of ostrich feather dusters, black to set off a room of black works, then a bigger room where what looks like specimens from an abbatoir hang from the ceiling (yep, shades of Damian Hurst)…welcome to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
Back in 2010 there were 1,140 exhibits; this year it’s over 1700…are we to assume there’s been an inflation in the sheer painterly brilliance and sculptural skills of the nation? Well, no. The impression here from the selection by architect Farshid Moussavi and her committee, is not that there is a superabundance of genius to accommodate but that there are so many disparate elements in contemporary art that you might as well get in as many as possible.
