ArtMaroon

Checking out the lights. Carnaby Street for 2020. I captured this just before hearing of the level 4 protocol. 😤#carnabystreet #christmaslights #london (at Carnaby London) https://www.instagram.com/p/CJBYIDahDhC/?igshid=ip3tl3zqq6bm

I escaped to this fictional studio space during the first lockdown earlier this year, taking part in the @rabbitsroadpress Spring School, which was a great opportunity to be free to creative or engage with the rest of the schoolers. It provided some light relief and the impetus to produce and share my little project with the talented group. The Winter school outcomes lured me to revisit these images and this idealised, contemplative cosiness. I drew up the plan and built the model with materials to hand in scale 1:20 and installed (to photograph) it in the garden to create a standalone structure, softened with the shrubs and flowers. There is a glazed (north-facing) elevation, skylight over the central area and strategically positioned daylight over the snug. #scalemodels #interiorarchitecture #artstudios #standalone #studios #architecture #spatialdesign #modelmaking (at London, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CI8h19xAnSC/?igshid=1eopg8tczyypx

Back in October I took up a short metalworking course @londonsculptureworkshop. This Janus-faced steel sculpture is based on a West African mask. It’s both concrete and abstract, representing East and West. This was my first attempt at drawing with steel. Aiming for more opportunities to practice. A foray in arc welding, keeps me interested in metal fabrication. Also pictured, riverscape view across the Thames and the Tate&Lyle factory. #metal #metalwork #metalsculpture #thames #riverthames (at London, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CI8Zn1Xh_p8/?igshid=63uyxli6hx3w

Watching #graysonperryartclub on the theme of Home and reflecting on our currently adapted live/work spaces. First Habitation was a small work made in 2013 to participate in a Benetton collection call out. #imagomundi #imagomundiart #mixedmedia #mixedmediaart #spaces #home #firsthome #graysonsartclub (at London, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CAplvYFnPk6/?igshid=1wcgltnuf85m6

Just before the great shut down of society -(seems like another era now) when visiting a gallery was the norm. I got to experience this exhibition. It was on the last day of W E B Dubois (1868—1963), Charting Black Lives at the House of Illustration, curated by Paul Goodwin and Katie McCurrach. The display of the exhibition I believe was the work of Alexander Boxhill. W E B Dubois, historian, sociologist and widely referenced intellectual, author of The Souls of Black Folk, had engaged a team of students from Atlanta University to create a series of graphic information; charts and pictograms. “…a display of 63 striking hand-drawn charts. These radical diagrams used experimental visuals to present a confronting and complex picture of African Americans over the four decades since emancipation from slavery.” Du Bois had been commissioned to contribute to the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900. This scientific data to refute racist myths was a remarkable feat before digitalisation. The documentation is eye-catching, intriguing - sobering even. Hand graphics, lettering, colour rendering, geometry, calculations - all comes together. The display was like turning the leaves of an expanded, upright book - except that these leaves were wooden-framed and hinged. Black and white archive photographs of people going about their lives accompanied the charts providing some balance and visible humanity. The display encouraged engagement. One either waited for one’s fellow-visitor to read before turning a board or break into conversation on a particular chart - which I did. There was after all, a lot to talk about.#paulgoodwin #katiemccurrach #alexanderboxhill #webdubois #africanamericanhistory #chartingblacklives #Houseofillustration #thesoulsofblackfolk #photography #archivephotography #graphiccharts #antiracism (at London, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_7s8psgpzL/?igshid=kuj1hjkn67dh

Launch of Kehinde Wiley’s #theyellowwallpaper exhibition at William Morris Gallery. Includes the artist and one of his models, caught in silhouette. Imagine her surprise when approached on the bustling streets of east London to participate in this project. #williammorris #morrisgallery #kehindewiley #portraiture #williammorriswallpaper (at William Morris Gallery) https://www.instagram.com/p/B9L33yNgWCs/?igshid=wf62aer7e5vv

Keeping warm and glowing on a very cold Saturday evening, below the arch at Wembley Stadium for RISE, launching #brent #lboc2020 #boroughofculture #wembleypark (at Wembley Park, London) https://www.instagram.com/p/B7gvm2Kgkf7/?igshid=1emyoixf532ne

Female artists’ work at 60 Years of art @tate. A representation of the less representated - even of these key artists making work over the last 6 decades in Britain. My attention was particularly drawn to the spaces and structures theme. #tatebritain #tate #womenartists #spaces #structures #sculpture #threedimensional (at Tate Britain, Millbank) https://www.instagram.com/p/B54x2zag7x3/?igshid=brhbcuikxreo

Steve McQueen’s Year3 @tate The vastness of the installation is such that it can be encountered initially as an expansive wall covering, then a representation of young Londoners with their teachers in classroom photo format. As each of the lower frames are viewed they reveal each pupil’s individual participation as a member of their respective schools; faith, state, independent or PRUs. Most groups are traditionally posed, but I did spot the odd informally shot compositions - which was a nice surprise. And I did succeed in finding a family member with her classmates, which took some doing. An ambitious project to realise for the artist and a likely challenge for the framers and hangers as exhibition sweeps through the entire length of the Duveen gallery, the Octagon ending at the Clore Studio walls. #stevemcqueen #year3 #tatebritain #tate #artangel #installationart #photography (at Tate Britain, Millbank) https://www.instagram.com/p/B53kZyRAavi/?igshid=3av1bzdjpjii

Giving thanks to my generous JL for experiencing the very popular Black History Walks River Cruise on the Thames, London. The cruise was hosted by Olauda Equiano, African abolitionist and author (the excellent Tony Warner) with commentary by non other than historian S I Martin. Featured this triumvirate of feminine might; Phillis Wheatley, poet and first African American to be published, Kandake (Queen) Amanirenas, of Kush, military chief who vanquished the Roman invasion, Queen Mother, Protector of the Golden Stool, Yaa Asantewaa of Edweso, Ashanti Kingdom. #blackhistorywalks #blackhistorywalksrivercruise #africanhistory #simartin (at River Thames - London, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3bnT4wAFpH/?igshid=kpfirhrxh8hh

Lina Iris Victor, ‘Some Are Born To Endless Night - Dark Matter’ at Autograph #linairisviktor #autograph (at Autograph) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3bgFjkh_Tp/?igshid=xx2fz6bmx7ca

‘A dream fulfilled:Swimming with humans’ #acryliconpaper #mixedmediaart #humansubstructure #collage #contemporaryart #londonartists (at London, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0ntB6aHn9S/?igshid=1crnurcetfald

Both artists (Ringgold and Saar) collaborated with their also talented family members to deconstruct the myths on black femininity and race - unapologetically political. Being female and black meant stouter societal doors to break down, and break down they did with the determination fuelled over decades of active expression right into their elderhood. Striving and remaining visible on that long road with no apparent vanishing point, speaking to power and deaf ears with their truth. Undeterred, Ringgold advises artists to “tell your story...” regardless. In her BBC Imagine feature she relates that she couldn’t even give her work away - particularly the political, American People series. She is relieved that she held on to these treasures. Now the Whitney (at whose portals she spent time protesting with her daughters, against blinding exclusion), at the behest of the 50 per cent; female/black artists and flagging the lack of opportunity. They threw objects with feminine symbolism and they threw rotten eggs - causing a stink. Whitney and Moma have caught up with her body of work. The large scale, arresting imagery of ‘Die’ American Series No. 20, has a prominent place on MoMa’s wall. I argue that this monumental piece of work painted in 1967, remains timely in 2019 and carries as powerful a message as Picasso’s Guernica. It’s a long-awaited inclusion. #betyesaar #faithringgold #africanamericanartists #africanamericanfemaleartists #serpentinegallery (at Serpentine Galleries) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0EH4ZflnWS/?igshid=apolb1e363t7

I hear with great interest that Betye Saar’s highly mystical yet political works are being shown in a roving exhibition starting at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) this September 2019 then on to MoMa in October. Earlier this year Saar’s gallery, Roberts Projects in Los Angeles, screened “a little-known 1977 documentary about the artist, Spirit Catcher: The Art of Betye Saar, as it gears up for the 92-year-old artist’s increasing international attention.” #jasmineweber 24.4.19 hyperallergenic.com Betye Saar is a visual griot and challenger of stereotypes on African/American identity. Her objet assemblage draws my attention to her compatriot and sister warrior Faith Ringgold, whose work I was able to view, currently gracing the space at Serpentine Gallery London - remarkably her first solo in a European institution. (Thank you @serpentine). #betyesaar #faithringgold #africanamericanartists #africanamericanfemaleartists #serpentinegallery (at Serpentine Galleries) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0EHczpFLj-/?igshid=g5ahpd91vvum

A weaver at work at Islington’s Business Design Centre. She happens to be my niece @dalia_james demonstrating her skills as a textile designer/maker on the last day of the Craft Council’s Hothouse 2019 Maker ‘First Year In’ New Designers Showcase. “Dalia’s Collection, 1859, is inspired by the colours and simple geometric shapes on the painted ceilings in Red House, William Morris’ Bexleyheath home designed in 1859. Dalia works with a range of fibres including bamboo and silk and her collection features hand dyed yarns, with colours also hand mixed in her studio.” daliajames.com @daliajamesstudio #weaving #handweaving #comtemporaryweaving #textiledesign #sustainabledesign #craftcouncil #craftcouncilhothouse2019 (at Business Design Centre) https://www.instagram.com/p/BzVqmAXliZE/?igshid=jer12b0rmq3f

Le Modèle Noir - de Gericault à Matisse, Musée D’Orsay “Taking a multi-disciplinary approach that combines the history of art and the history of ideas, this exhibition explores aesthetic, political, social and racial issues as well as the imagery unveiled by the representation of black figures in visual arts, from the abolition of slavery in France (1794) to the modern day.”1 This was an essential stop in a brief visit to Paris. The D’orsay exhibition discourse is not a new spotlight of course. Previous analyses have delved below the surface of the subject, leaving a trail of enlightenment for others. The curation, and indeed the show is robust and forthright, yet as an African, in this context particularly, it was impossible to avoid the waves of emotion that surface when facing these internationally acclaimed works. The audience’s expressions and muffled exclamations in viewing the collection created a salient piece of potential filmography. It was surreal to browse objectively, while observing this - within the sphere of large scale images shouting the crude realities depicted in enslavement scenes. There is the relief of beauty and elegance, portrayals in chapters of comedy, theatre, save for the stage life of Ira Aldridge - which was not always a happy one. There are examples of French literature, such as the lives and works of Alexander Dumas; father and son. The story of these overlooked figures, case in point, Manet’s ‘Olympia’ both captivates and causes unease and disquiet. This painting, also copied by Gaugin and others, is for me, one of the key pillars of this exhibition. 1 - https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/events/exhibitions/in-the-museums/exhibitions-in-the-musee-dorsay/article/le-modele-noir-47692.html?tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=254&cHash=1135cf8ff6 #museedorsay #lemodelenoir #lemodelenoirdegericaultamatisse #modernart #galleriesinparis (at Musée d'Orsay) https://www.instagram.com/p/ByunyKoF_9D/?igshid=1ahc6rk9pnwc0

My narrative ‘Seeds of Revolution’, 2011, plaster paper on canvas, featured in the Look See Interpret Exhibition to celebrate International Women’s Month @arcgalleryldn, 451 High Rd, Tottenham, N176QH. Ends 28 March. Tues-Sat 11-6pm @arcgalleryldn Navigating and linking the middle ground between two and three dimensions. The human environment, the built, the deconstructed. #contemporaryart #fineart #art #mixed media #sculpture #acrylic #northlondon #tottenham #artcollector #londonartgalleries #haringey #newartgalleriesinlondon (at London, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/BvCFFT7gnrd/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=624rh2pnc4fa