 |
Rashaad Newsome, King of Arms Tabard, 2013, Leather and
jewelry, 33 x 37 x 24 inches. Image via carrollfletcher.com.
|
March 7 – April 10, 2014
56 – 57 Eastcastle
Street
London,
England
From
Carroll / Fletcher web site:
Carroll /
Fletcher is pleased to present a group exhibition that brings together the
distinct but interconnected practices of John Akomfrah, Phoebe Boswell and Rashaad Newsome. Through media ranging from film, animation, performance,
collage and sculpture, the three artists seek to explore the cultural
frameworks and politics associated with identity. The exhibition considers the
effects that our historical and cultural origins have both on a personal level
and on the fabric of contemporary society.
Rashaad
Newsome's
practice cuts across performance, video, collage and sculpture in order to
explore the symbolism associated with contemporary African-American culture.
His work addresses issues of race, class, gender and sexuality through cultural
amalgams, combining elements of pop-based imagery and the visual language of
hip hop culture, such as diamond bling and urban beats, with "high
cultural" forms including heraldry, ornament and the aesthetics of the
baroque.
Newsome's
fascination with the aesthetics of "high culture" is evident in his
series of intricate, richly detailed collages composed of layers of images of
luxury items sourced from glossy magazines, encased in ornate antique frames
embellished with some of the artist's signature motifs. This distinct visual
language is also developed in the opulent Herald and King
of Arms series, inspired by an exploration of Western European coats
of arms.
Working
like an anthropologist, Newsome's performance video Shade Compositions studies
the body language associated with hip hop/African-American culture. Following a
choreographed sound score, the piece is composed of repeated gestures,
movements, and vocalisations. The artist acts as a conductor as he remixes the
audio live using a Nintendo® Wii™ game controller, alluding to improvisatory
orchestral music.
For the
last 30 years John Akomfrah has been committed to giving a
voice and a presence to the legacy of international Diaspora in Europe; to fill
in the voids in history by mining historical archives to create film essays and
speculative fictional stories about past lives. His poetic, polyphonic films
create sensual audiovisual experiences while developing a filmic language to
understand the trauma and sense of alienation of displaced subjects; one that
moves away from the rhetoric of resentment to propose new agents and
perspectives.
Akomfrah's
two-screen installation Transfigured Night (2013), takes
Richard Dehmel's poem Verkärte Nacht (transfigured night) as a point
of departure to reflect upon postcolonial histories. The artist draws a
parallel between the promise to bring up someone else's child in the poem and
the promise made on the eve of a new era to the newly independent post-colonial
state.
Born in
Kenya and brought up as an expatriate in the Middle East, Phoebe
Boswell combines traditional draughtsmanship and digital technology to
create charged drawings, animations and installations that tell layered, global
stories of human endeavour anchored in a personal exploration of the notion of
'home'. For this exhibition, Boswell will present The Matter of Memory, the
multimedia installation for which she won the Sky Academy Arts Scholarship in
2012, which reflects on aspects of Kenya's history - her history - by
drawing upon and reinterpreting her parents' memories.
The work
responds to various childhood stories from Kenya recounted to Boswell by her
"ki-settler" father (a fourth generation Kenyan settler) and Kikuyu
mother, in an attempt for the artist to piece together her own definition of
'home'. Presented as a colonial style living room, much like the one she recalls
from her own memories of childhood visits to Kenya, the immersive,
multi-sensory installation aims to take the viewer on a narrative journey
through personal histories, where revelations of uncomfortable truths emerge
embedded within the fabric of this familiar space through audio monologues,
projected hand-drawn animations, wall drawings and animated objects. From the
vantage point of a person who grew up removed from the site of her heritage but
very much a product of a post-colonial partnership, the work explores the
effect Kenya and its colonial past had on the often opposing childhoods of
Boswell's parents.
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