Time travels extremely fast and slow at the same time when traveling. There is so much to see ans experience, on my final day in London I had decided to go and take a look at the old "gems" so to say. My day plan consisted of Trafalgar Square, National Gallery and the Institute of Contemporary Arts. It did not quite all work out that way but about that a little later.
There is no point of me posting sights of London as we all have seen them, at least in pictures if not in real life. On my last day I happened to be walking past all of those downtown sights and the masses of tourists were frightening, if you thought that the recent troubles with attacks and accidents that plagued London would change tourist minds about visiting the city, you would be wrong. Hence, I stayed well away from those spots, thankfully tourists in London don't like to walk to places to the streets are relatively free of them. I did saw something that was very interesting on my way to the National Gallery, which was a monument to the women of World War II. I took an image of it because of the simplicity of it. I tend to pay more attention to monuments that are abstract or, at least, do not represent human beings. The artist (I could not find who designed it) simplified it from the original design until there were 17 different types of uniforms hanging. These uniforms represent the many types of jobs women held at the time of WWII. The memorial was built to remember the women's work. I liked it because, a) it was dedicated to the demographic group that is not normally represented in monuments when we think about WWII, and b) the clothing on the memorial seemed so real, almost like the human bodies were still in them.
Soon after I found what I had been looking for - Trafalgar Square. This is a place that repeatedly keeps surfacing in art history classes. The 4th plinth projects is still active and I had a chance to see the current sculpture placed there. To be honest I was not impressed. Some of the previous works were a lot more thought provoking and interesting given the historical context of the square. I think there have been a lot stronger works of art. The longer thumb won't magically make think positively and correct their destructive ways of living. This work does not examine any particular issue or concept, it is an attempt to take something overly generalized and turn it into a singularity that fits all problems, or, perhaps, I am overly critical because I am currently making my way through Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything. Regardless, this approach did not work, in my limited experience the opposite direction works a lot better.
I won't be saying much about the National Gallery. As you can imagine, it contained a lot of paintings from the Middle Ages to 20th century masterpieces. While it was great to see them, especially William Turner's work (you can't go to London and not see Turner), these paintings are something you can read about in art history books. For me, the whole point of seeing the art in person right now was to find what I cannot read about in art history books. I wanted to see the controversial, the latest and the leading art work. As a result I did not spend a whole lot of time in the gallery. I enjoyed it and I am glad I had the chance to see it but more interesting things were awaiting me.
My next stop was the Institute of Contemporary Arts. This is where I encountered my biggest disappointment of that day. When I found my way to the Institute it was open but under construction. There was nothing inside besides a book store that was only partly operating because of all the dust around. I was really looking forward to seeing what they have on displays. There was nothing I could do about that. After that disappointment I had already gone through my entire plan for that day and with nothing else I wanted to see downtown, I returned home.
Turns out I was gained something from short-cut visit. I had just enough time to go to the local gallery in the area I was staying. My friend had said there were good shows and I was too busy previous days to find time for that. I decided to visit it that afternoon. When I arrived, I knew I made the right choice. The exhibition titled The Place Is Here at the South London Gallery was my biggest surprise and reward that day. This exhibition brings together works by over 25 black artists and collectives in 1980s. It examined representations, storytelling, race, gender and sexual politics.
Over the years I have developed a strong interest in the "underdog." It was no surprise that this exhibition was so fascinating me. Works conceived in 1980s, at the time when questions of race, gender, and politics were very much at the forefront of everyday life and the British culture. The works exhibited not only produce a strong critique of the colonial power but also strive to reclaim the body that still seems to belong to the colonizers to do what they wish (at least in their minds). The exhibition held many different works - new media, paintings, drawings, sculptures, and even lectures and ephemeral materials from important black artist group activities. For example, Rasheed Araeen's 1982 lecture Art and Black Consciousness at the First National Black Art Convention.
Other works that caught my attention are Sonia Boyce's Lay Back, Keep Quiet, and Think of What Made Britain so Great 1986. If not by art itself, the title is very telling. It is a four-piece pastel drawing that references Britain's major colonies. They are placed inside crosses, no doubt alluding to death and Christianity at the same time as pointing out where the wealth came from. These crosses are placed among red splatters and black roses, both elements that represent violence and sorrow. This work is pretty self explanatory and it inserts a black woman into the story. She appears to be contemplating the history and confronting her part in it. The history of the British Empire is also the story of her ancestors. This work falls into the category of storytelling and it is a very clear one.
It was great surprise to see works by Isaac Julien and Mona Hatoum, especially the works that I had researched before but was not able to see them in their full extent.
Hatoum's work of images of her mother, naked and in shower, with Arabic text written on top was more honest and powerful than I expected. The photographs were arranged in a video that had an audio component to it. The audio had two layers, one was Hatoum and her mother were having a conversation in Arabic (recorded on one of Hatoum's visits in Libya) and the second was letters read out loud. They written by Hatoum's mother to her daughter during the war in Libya. They talked about land and property and how her mother "belongs" to Hatoum's father as a piece of property. And how the naked photographs reclaimed her mother's body but created a divide between a daughter and father. Hatoum's father felt like his daughter had somehow trespassed on his property and he has never forgiven her for taking those photographs in the shower. He is even angry, for years, at Hatoum's mother, as if she gave away something that belongs to him. The mother writes about the divide between a man and a woman, the distance that is physical, in a family setting, in relationships, and in sexuality. What was reclaiming of one's body and sexuality, appeared as robbing for someone else. A mindset that women's bodies still belong to men is well and alive (at least in certain countries). They also talk about how distance has affected Mona Hatoum. She was affected because she was born in exile, in a country that did not want her, and now she lives in another yet another country, a different type of exile. This is a theme that concerns me at my own work - exiles, my own and people' s of my country Latvia. This work is so layered that I could spend many hours re-watching and listening to this video. It is about reclaiming female sexuality, the many different kinds of divides in people experience.
Of course there were many other works to look at and spend time with. I could not possibly do justice to them all, so just a few words about my favorites:
- Keith Piper - The Body Politic 1983 - Piper created a sculptural work with anonymous naked bodies on the display. These bodies are accompanied with text that appears to be said by these "bodies." The interaction between the bodies and text is very singular. It could reference just one person but it is this singularity that has rendered them to be so general. These voices could belong to any black man or woman of any ethnicity or race. Just as well, it is clear that the "person" they speak of and to is the viewer, the white privileged male and the colonizing power this white supremacy mind set has created. The bodies were just things to play with. The last linne of the texy summerizes it the best: I was your best fantasy + your worst fear. Everything to you but human.
- Gavin Jantjes - A South African Colouring Book, 1974-75 - A reflection on the Apartheid era, radical classification, and exploitation with a touch of irony. Jantjes uses the concept of a children's colouring book with instructions what to colour in order to show the systematic racism bread into the children at young age. The instructions say: Colour these people dead; Colour this slavery golden; Colour this labour dirt cheap. These texts create tension when they are placed next to the images showing exploitation of people. An uncanny object to give to a child to play with.
- Dave Lewis - Games and The Flag of Our Ancestors - Two striking silver gelatin prints. One depicting Africa on a chess board, no more than a game for European colonizers in real life. The other is a photo of a black man posing by a flag, his back to the camera. He is holding a card of two photos, anthropological or slave records made by Europeans. The simplicity of the visual language is making these photographs beyond successful. they don't require any explanation. The use and abuse of Africa and its peoples is evident.
This concludes my stay in London. The day 5 was spend in travels and airport waiting rooms. Needless to say, nothing important happened there. Next stop - Venice Biennale!
