ArtMaroon

A Meeting of Great Minds?

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 10:55:12 +0000

Albert Chinualumogu Achebe

Author, Educator, Publisher, Activist

Born in Ogidi, South-East Nigeria

16 November 1930 - 21 March 2013

As I reflect on the life and work of a human being I respect and admire, Prof Chinua Achebe, and note the citations and articles honouring/critiquing him, I realise that another luminary and educator I just happen to be re-reading was born on 23 March, seventy-one years ago. These genuinely iconic figures might be saluting each other on the path of life and death, through the marking of their arrivals and departures from this world. What would they have made of each other in current times? I hadn’t read The Groundings with my Brothers for some years and thought it was time to revisit a remarkable teacher/activist, who was a mere 38 years old when his life was extinguished. On hearing that Baba Chinua Achebe had passed, my first reaction (as a form of salute) was to grab my copy of Things Fall Apart, but remembered that I had lent it to a young friend. It’s reassuring to know that these luminaries continue to live through their work and teaching and that my copy is being shared with the younger generation. Groundings will not be returning to my shelf, as it is destined for the eyes of another reader I have in mind.

Walter Rodney

Scholar, Educator, Political Activist

Born, Guyana

23 March 1942 - 13 June 1980

Fifth edition of The Grounding with my Brothers, published by Bogle L’ouverture Press.

February 2013 is over. What else is Popping Up?

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 01:35:45 +0000

The start of February saw a Pop Up Exhibition of West African Contemporary Art on Cork Street.

A group of artists, patrons and friends congregated with anticipation as they waited to graduate from ‘the superfluous’ to invited guests on this well-trodden pavement outside number 28. Those who had been processed via guest listing, already luxuriated in the warmth inside. The boundary that we residuals aimed to transcend was well and truly within sight - just a few risers above to the gallery floor. The art dialogue commenced at this threshold, flowed into the space and through the packed audience moving around the works, like a warm current of air.

The reward for this transcendence was a well-seasoned collection of canvases and sculptures. Was this a West African affair, or a display of some of Nigeria’s finest? Judging by the assembled arterati moving through their self-made hum and animated camaraderie, it appeared to be the latter. Artists critiqued artists. Guests admired. The musicality of the West African accent merged with the ambiance created by Peter Adjaye’s convivial African wall of musical sound.

General Ward, Courtesy Ben Osaghae

Child Abuse (detail) , Courtesy Ben Osaghae

Having found a temporary anchor for myself, I observed two artists through the viewing current: I was able to witness Ben Osaghae’s General Ward. He offered a briefing of this incendiary, sodium-yellow exposé – his stance on what he opined are the inadequacies and sub-standard conditions of hospitals in Nigeria. Osaghae communicates in a graphic, impressionistic language to speak social commentary. On this canvas, patients are scattered; spilling into and out of the frame - on a chaos of beds and scarcity of beds. Both edge of sight and placement created a diptych in the company of Child Abuse in purply-blues. Disturbing, turbulent and chaotic truths, Osaghae’s paintings are not about pleasure for the eyes, but a truthful, hard-hitting pain to the soul.

The Source, (half detail) Courtesy Fidelis Odogwu

Osaghae’s fellow-artist, Fidelis Odogwu directed my attention to his hanging sculpture; a grid of four decorative squares. To the unfocussed eye, deceptively soft and feathery - in actuality, a sunburst configuration of textured, powdery, rust-coated steel. The source of all matter.

Odogwu and Osaghae’s works, shout contradiction of materials and how they are perceived. The discomfort of humanity on distressed metal beds, meant for comfort and return to wellness and the beauty of erosive metal in sculptural form, depicting the constancy of the sun.

Photo

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 16:52:03 +0000

Photo

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 16:49:20 +0000

Detail of metalwork gate, church in Playa del Ingles, GC

Gaudiesque wall, Puerto de Mogan, GC

The Built and the Natural

The Built and the Natural 2

Photo

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 16:37:00 +0000

Yellow theme, San Fernando, GC

Water sculpture, Las Palmas, GC

Public Art, Las Palomas, GC

Invisibility on a promenade, Playa del Ingles, GC

Journeys around the Face and other Places: An African Story - Artist Talk

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 10:19:00 +0000

After the closure of the Journeys and Kinship project display at Museum of London, the related talk on art practice, influences and progression was a great way to end.

My thanks to all who attended/supported at the Flyover and to my project partners and participants who worked with me this year.

Journeys around the Face and other Places: An African Story - Artist Talk

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 08:29:54 +0000

London Open House, Saturday 22 September 2012 Sunken House,...

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 02:52:00 +0100

London Open House, Saturday 22 September 2012

Sunken House, Hackney & Victorian Waterpoint, Kings Cross and abandoned house on the same road as the Sunken House, colloquially known as Ed’s Shed in the Open House guide book. I met and had a photograph taken with Ed, who has been a welcoming host to hordes of visitors to his home for the last few years he’s taken part in Open House. The Sunken House was designed by architect, David Adjaye.

Gérard Quenum – Dolls Never Die, Artist Talk, October Gallery, Saturday 22 September 2012

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 23:08:29 +0100

I missed the launch of Gérard Quenum’s Dolls Never Die Exhibition at the October Gallery last Wednesday evening, being double-booked in south London. However, I was set to attend the artist’s talk on Saturday 22. Having strategically slotted the event neatly into my London Open House itinerary, I arrived at the gallery at setting up time, allowing me the space to appreciate the Beninese artist’s current show. The sculptures reinforced his clearly distinctive imaginings with subject matters, featuring mainly cherub-like discarded dolls with wooden stelae - characters, within their various stage sets. Quenum’s work appears cloaked in a mantel of spirit forces. Why does he apply an innocuous toy to evoke such striking representations? Why this choice of materials to construct his visual language?

Gérard Quenum with The Good Shepherdess (photo. J Joseph)

To a question on his art practice direction, Quenum responded that for the time being, he would not be deviating from the use of dolls and objet trouvé. He could not relate to new objects as he coud to old, as recyclia has a previous life, an antiquity and a story. He spoke of his chance encounter with the main ingredient in his work. One day he came across the head of a doll in a puddle caked in mud and dirt and took it back to his studio. He did not incorporate the notion of the toy, or what that might represent into his sculptures for some time - nailing it to his studio wall. Strangely, my mind wandered to an image of the tar baby in the Uncle Remus stories - of Brer Fox, Brer Rabbit and the briar bush. After receiving various comments and reactions to this object on his studio wall, Quenum began to explore the artistic potential of the doll in his work. In my opinion, when I view his art, these devices are very effective, at times unsettling symbolic statements.

Quenum’s installation Death to the Dictator, Long Live Dictatorship!, reinforced the effect of an ‘island’ on the gallery floor. It became both land mass and boundary, within a sea of artist-to-audience discourse on his practice. The installation comprises, recycled kitchen mortars, (used to pound staples such as yams, throughout West Africa) placed sideways on a bed of sand. He explains that they were damaged from domestic use. I visualised their fluted and sculpted appearance to be formed by natural organisms, as they would in their original state on a forest floor. Some are mere tubes and others solid, revealing rings of wear and tear. The wood is arranged along the sand in a loose military tank manoeuvre. Topping this caravan of destruction and, to seal the symbolism, is the human element; rusty tin hats of war and the presence of a doll, it’s head above the parapet surveying the scene in autocratic stance. A recycling of dictators, so to speak. As he explained, dictators such as Saddam Hussein et al collapsed, the Arab Spring occurred; yet new dictators continue to emerge.

The artist mentioned the subject of vodun (which I expect might be topical in most conversations with an audience familiar with his work). This is not particularly the reference he draws upon in his sculptures, he says – although he believes that its source lay in Benin. However, he also believes that it is natural in Benin - in Africa, to sense or have a feeling for objects and everyday things.

One of the other pieces discussed was Nomad on the edge of the desert, a tribute to those living in the harsh environment of the desert, away from modern technology. However, they are experts in shepherding and herding, finding food, water and honey. Their natural way of life touches him, as he doesn’t believe he would survive in their place. The other was New Cosmonaut which assumes the appearance of a figure swathed in thickly padded attire, decorated in a raised cluster of patterns. Quenum relates that in Benin, there are women who display the designs of scarification on their bare upper bodies. Then there are those [assume men] in the city who insist on being fully clothed in jackets, despite it being very hot. He exclaims “They’re on another planet!”

Gerard Quenum’s ‘Dolls Never Die’ 20 September to 27 October 2012 at the October Gallery, 24 Old Gloucester Street, WC1N 3AL. Nearest tube: Holborn. www.octobergallery.co.uk

Another Rendezvous – Sunday with friends at Tate Britain

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 17:53:50 +0100

On my first excursion across Olympic London since the start of the 2012 games - and not without adventure, I arrived at Tate Britain in Pimlico. This was once I had navigated a triangle of barriers in aid of a cycle race and had been refreshed by one of the summer’s ‘rainy season’ precipitations. The rendezvous was with my esteemed friend, James Barnor, and a kindred spirit, visiting from Ghana, interior design consultant, Jennifer.

James is one of the artists showing in ‘Another London’, a photographic exhibition at Tate Britain and, a commentary of his work and viewing of co-exhibitors’ photographs, couldn’t be missed. We were able to contribute to conversations with him and other viewers - discussing the images through the perspective of his lens and a long distinguished documentry of life in Ghana and London.

“Mike Eghan at Piccadilly Circus, London’ c.1967, copyright James Barnor, Courtesy Autograph ABP

The photographers share iconography, histories and journeys through London’s environments and communities. James’ work contributes images of the great Muhammad Ali, the elegant ‘Eva’, a cosmopolitan Ghanaian woman. In another of his recognisable photographs is a scene with a dapper gentleman, blessed with a striking resemblance to a young Sidney Poitier, (which I remarked upon).

Leaping off the exhibition catalogue’s cover and postcard book is James’ image of ‘Mike Eghan at Piccadilly Circus, London’. One can see why this dynamic representation of London has been chosen to open the book. Photographed in the late 1960s, it captures a seemingly carefree moment on the steps of Eros, a landmark that has been a place of another rendezvous for Londoners and visitors alike. It is unusually clear of present-day human or vehicular activity that fills the city’s premier junction - allowing the subject to enjoy a moment to ‘spread his wings’.

The digital age enables vibrant flashes of imagery and branding on the famous boards of Piccadilly Circus. The photograph acts both as a time capsule of communication technology and, anchor in the art of brand advertising - as in the BOAC VC10 display. British Overseas Airways Corporation past, is a brand precursor of British Airways present.

The exhibition runs until 16 September 2012

Another London – International Photographers Capture City Life 1930-1980

Tate Britain Millbank London SW1P 4RG Call

+44 (0)20 7887 8888 Email visiting.britain@tate.org.uk

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/another-london

CLOSURE OF THE MUSEUM OF LONDON DOCKLANDS DURING THE OLYMPIC GAMES, 2012

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 14:13:00 +0100

Statement courtesy Museum of London Dockland’s website:

“The Museum of London Docklands will be closed between 9 July and 16 September 2012 inclusive to host Deutsches Haus, the official base for the German National Olympic Committee. During this time we will carry out essential upgrades to our facilities, improving our visitor experience.

You can, however, still visit the Museum of London, which is FREE and open throughout the London 2012 Games. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

However…

THE ‘JOURNEYS AND KINSHIP’ PROJECT, IS CURRENTLY ON DISPLAY IN THE LONDON SUGAR & SLAVERY GALLERY AT THE MoL DOCKLANDS.

MoL DESCRIPTION:

“Is the face not currency enough? This display of face casts responds to the irony that members of the African Diaspora must pay to visit sites from which their ancestors were transported into enslavement.

Journeys and Kinship explores further the themes of the London, Sugar & Slavery gallery at the Museum of London Docklands through a project between the visual artist Jean Joseph and a group of young Londoners working together with Caribbean Calypso musician, Alexander D Great, and Yvonne Wilson from Equi-Vison.

The display features Joseph’s work Sale Over Centuries, 2010 which consists of plaster face casts of 42 people from the African Diaspora who were born in and/or currently live in London. The casts promote discussion on the structure of faces and show how resemblances carry across generations and geographies.

In response to Joseph’s work the young Londoners explored issues of enslavement, London’s involvement and the African Diaspora. They then created a display which includes their own face casts and original music alongside film and photography documenting the project. This thought-provoking display raises issues around enslavement and life in modern London which remain relevant in today’s capital.”

Response:

The Journeys and Kinship project was launch in February 2012 (see previous postings) at the London Sugar and Slavery Gallery, MoL Docklands and was due to end on 4 November 2012. The exhibition theme is an interpretation of the greater objective of the LSS Gallery itself and the J&K realisation was in itself a Journey of collaboration and process, involving hard work and commitment.

The museum is a genuine treasure, yet many Londoners are still unaware of the Docklands branch, and, subsequently, the LSS Gallery. Ergo, it is disappointing that the entire museum and as a consequence, the LSS Gallery, should only be accessible to one nation - not only during the school holidays, but at a particular time of heightened international visitor numbers to the capital, ie, the Olympic Games 2012, which is being held nearby. The Museum’s premise is that they will be undertaking upgrading during that period. Was there a need to close the building for 9 weeks? Will the German Olympic Committee be taking up the display areas?

“I have promoted the project through various media from its launch in February to the present. As someone who has brought the J&K project to the LSS and written extensively on the topic, I have chosen to circulate the information and leave the matter for others/potential visitors to take up as they so choose. I will however, communicate directly with the Museum managers…

…You should be aware for those who have never visited the LSS, (shame on you) it is a permanent display within the Docklands site of the Museum of London and the floor space is relatively small. However, it is a vastly significant display and I find, underexposed in terms of promotion.

However, I support your angst in feeling that our [African] history is being disregarded, yet again. I do not need to emphasise this, as it is the theme of my main exhibition, ‘We’ve already paid - Journeys and Kinship’ which the artwork at the museum is a part of. ” J Joseph

In Search of My Father - A play by Don Kinch

Thu, 17 May 2012 15:38:58 +0100

It was worth the dash across town to Pitfield Street, Hoxton, East London, to catch the second night of Don Kinch’s play - an invitation from good friend, AB. The Courtyard Theatre is tucked sneakily around the corner of Pitfield on Bowling Green Way and a genuine stone’s throw (as opposed to an estate agent’s throw) from Hoxton Square - a regular family haunt, in the good old days, before the arterati colonised these environs.

Now to the play itself. A lineage connecting Africa and the Sub-continent is explored and represented through the Indo-African genealogy of the main female protagonist and dialogue of the central male character. The theme of Ubuntu (Humanity - Zulu/Xhosa) and a backdrop of contemporary choreography, performed by ‘the King and Queen’ of the archetypal African kingdom, keeps the audience focused on ancient history. There is narrative, percussion, drama, comedy, dance - all wrapped up in this accessible dramatic package. Well worth experiencing.

Extract of a film made by young participants of the...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:56:00 +0100

Extract of a film made by young participants of the ‘Journeys and Kinship project at London Sugar and Slavery Gallery, Museum of London, Docklands. To see the full documentary, visit the LSS and see the full extent of the work, which includes the ‘Sale over Centuries’ 2010 art installation, photography and rousing words and music facilitated by Alexander D Great. It all ends November 4 2012. Support the participants; visit before it ends. Thank you to those who have already connected.

The process of making a plaster face...

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:08:00 +0100

The process of making a plaster face cast.

‘Xelander’ Thomas contributed to ‘no.3 cast’ of the installation ‘Sales Over Centuries, 2010’

Courtesy of Xelander Thomas

Click on the link below to find out more

http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/Docklands/Whats-on/Exhibitions-Displays/JourneysandKinship.htm

Journeys and Kinship Exhibition Launch in Pictures @ The Museum of London Docklands

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:18:57 +0000

Artist and sculptor Jean joseph’s Exhibition….. We’ve Already Paid at Willesden Library was very well received and attended by a variety of people some of whom are documented here in particular the stunningly stylish, vigorous and vocal lady Semone Brewster. The exhibition was developed further to showcase at Museum of London under the title of Journeys and Kinship.

Pictures available on link below:

http://www.peoplepictures.me/Street/Events/Pages/Journeys_and_Kinship.html

Special Thanks to Michael Blythe (Award winning Jamaican Born London Based Photographer) www.peoplepictures.me

Journeys and Kinship display - Museum of London Docklands

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 13:41:00 +0000

Is the Face not Currency enough?

The question is posed in promoting the Journeys and Kinship project on the Museum of London Docklands website. I was fortunate to work with a group of very capable young Londoners, who had already responded to this question in their own way to the issues of enslavement; historical or modern day.

On Saturday, 25 February, parents, extended family and friends gathered at the Museum for the premiere film screening, music score and photography, documenting the Journeys and Kinship project. This was the result of months of hard work by participants, supported by facilitators. It was a beautiful day in every respect and there was much appreciation of the young people’s work by all concerned.

The Journeys and Kinship project is a progression from a body of work entitled ‘We’ve already paid – Journeys and Kinship’ - a response to an irony. Returnees, from the African diaspora enter what are in actual fact, memorials, to pay their respects to ancestors who were stored as cargo, awaiting shipment across the Atlantic. In addition, they pay a fee to enter these memorials.

Sale over Centuries, 2010 and young Londoner’s casts - Journeys and Kinship Display

Young Londoner’s face cast display - Journeys and Kinship

‘Sale over Centuries, 2010’ installation is made up of 42 face casts. It aims to convey the emotive with past and living histories -the reconnection of human souls, through symbolic facial recognition across time and geographies. In effect, re-engaging Diaspora and African continent.

Face casts are presented as raw consumerism. From the coastal warehouses of West Africa, to market, then point of sale, they are bar coded, ready for purchase. Within the grid of the installation, is the evocative configuration; vertical and horizontal layers. There is separation from Motherland and every aspect of cultural norm. Yet, the face remains - features and clues to the past.

Meanwhile, the lapse of time and modernity has created a chasm, filled with amnesia; the mother barely recognises her children. Hence, the returnees must tug on her apron, seeking recognition and so, the tools of referencing - inventorial linkages of ancestry are introduced.

The LSS is a logical place to bring ‘Sale over Centuries, 2010’ as an additional experience of learning within the existing display. It was a challenge for our young team, in London, to see the face as a means to reconnection of past and present. The installation’s casts present a neutral inhumanity and identification, while participants were encouraged to freely express their own heritage, identity, personality and interests. They were in effect, making their own history and having fun, (as the original volunteers had done previously) here in this city. I trust it will challenge the wider audience.

In Memory of Mrs Lola May Powell, 12.9.1931 - 12.1.2012 for providing cast no. 31.

With thanks to the Museum for recognising the potential of this project.

Museum officers; LA for steering and mentoring the programme with such passion.

RG for arranging the exhibition display and KM for support and liaison during the proposal stages.

Alexander D Great, Musician and Facilitator - For directing the creation of an excellent piece of music and lyrics.

Yvonne Wilson, Young People’s Advocate (Equi-vision) without whom there would be no presence of such a diverse, engaging team to participate.

Congratulations to all.

One Saturday in February

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:04:55 +0000

‘Arts & Activism: Culture and Resistance’ was the headline for the 7th Huntley Conference at London Metropolitan Archives on Saturday 18th February. In a break out session, I explored the archetypal studio space (albeit, via a PowerPoint presentation).

The physical versus the psychological work space, obstacles to creating work, developing real networks and, creative opportunities was the focus of discussion.

In my session, we produced drawings of historical images using a children’s puzzle book technique and played with a well known quote/treatise from a Swiss artist. (dots ……….lines__________ are a clue) and noted quotations by John Henrik Clarke on Paul Robeson and Robeson on his own manifesto. Our imaginings took us away from ourselves and saw us transported from temperate climate, to African shores and back again.

To continue the ‘fight’, the artist as activist/expressionist will always persevere in maintaining a voice through their work. However, it is essential that he or she is encouraged to speak/create by enabling their ‘garrets’ to be effective, efficient and secure environments.

Second Notting Hill Open Exhibition 2011 at Portobello Gallery

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:28:45 +0000

Featuring the Work of local artists.

Dedicated to John Hoyland (RA) (1934-2011)

Duration: 6 to 23 December 2011, 1pm to 6pm.

The Second Notting Hill Open Exhibition 2011 features the work of local artists and includes oil paintings, watercolours, collage, drawings, photography, printmaking, ceramics and sculpture. All works are for sale.

The pieces included in this exhibition were selected by a distinguished panel comprising: Dr Guillem Ramos-Poqui (Chair), Winston Branch (Prix de Rome Guggenheim Fellow), Siglinde Buhl (Corner Nine Arts), Chandra Patel (Lyndons) and Ron Best (Notting Hill Visual Arts Festival).

Chattel Row, photo-collage and mixed media, by Jean Joseph

(From Caribbean disappearing architecture series)

For further Information, contact:

Ron Best (Curator)

07950 647 485 / info@nottinghillvisualarts.com

There is a lecture by Dr. Guillem Ramos-Poqui and a BBC documentary on John Hoyland on Sunday 18 December 2011 at 1.30pm at the Gallery.

Address: Portobello Gallery, 6 Thorpe Close, London W10 5XL.

Closes tube Ladbroke Grove. Several buses including 52, 23, 7. Thorpe Close is opposite the tube station and is located between Portobello Road and Ladbroke Grove.

Exhibition ends on Eleven, Eleven, Eleven

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:02:00 +0000

We’ve already paid – Journeys and Kinship Exhibition. Ends Eleven, Eleven, Eleven, a young woman jets off to Grenada for her birthday and the world observes and commemorates a significant thanksgiving.

In the humbler realm of an artist, the three weeks of the exhibition on The Wall @ The Gallery at Willesden (North West London) has been another phase of the painterly undertaking of historical and living historical re-attachment. The theme offers a subtle visual expression, vis-à-vis between the Diaspora and African Continent. Interpreting the Transatlantic enslavement of Africans in artistic form is deeply sobering and, for the writer, a spiritual reality which has culminated in the collection of mixed media paintings, including the installation entitled ‘Sale over Centuries’, evoking sections of a slave ship with product placement. Indeed, the first setting and launch of the exhibition, was on a vessel at arc Gallery, appropriate, in terms of the venue itself and the arrival/departure of viewers. Bringing the display to my locality and to a land-based interior at that meant an alternative strategy was required and self-curating considerations resulted in a circumnavigated layout to the show.

The late overdue summer sunshine of early autumn provided a perfect outdoor studio to complete additional work featuring the two ‘Rs’; Revolution and Resistance. These pieces completed the display at Willesden.

Setting up and hanging the work in mid October, particularly the installation of face casts was a technical challenge for my assistant and myself. And their appearance on the scene caused a few stirrings from locals and some raised eyebrows - comforting and discomforting outpourings. The comments and questions from the public passing through the main concourse, provided amusement and expected inquisitiveness and, curiosity. Questions such as: Are they for Halloween? Or, are they all of the same person? (Bearing in mind that the 42 faces featured were of individuals from children to elders - male and female). Their curiosity led to an assumption that placing three- dimensional art on a wall was an opportunity for tactile experiences. I was told by security staff to avoid placing ‘do not touch’ signage, as they would encourage handling by troublesome youngsters. Judging by my personal experience and observations, I erred on the side of caution and put up the signs. Rationality is a majority state of mind.

Thank you to all who assisted me with the display and those who will be supporting with dismantling the show and to BAR. And of course to those who attended throughout the run of the exhibition, for the positive feedback and recommendations.

Special thanks to J and to JE at arc Gallery.

Opening Party for We’ve already paid - Journeys and...

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 17:45:33 +0100

Opening Party for We’ve already paid - Journeys and Kinship 2 on Thursday evening at the Wall@TheGallery, Willesden Green Library Centre, North West London.

My exhibition launch was shared with a group show entitled ‘Inspiration’ showing in the main gallery space.

It was a cold October evening, but warm with support and friendly socialising of colleagues, friends and family members.