Oliver Ahmed, House of illustration 8/1/20
Olivia Ahmad is the curator of The House of Illustration & Editor of Varoom Magazine.
The engaging Oliver Ahmed’s excellent talk entered on the curatorial aspects of the House of Illustration exhibitions (and ZOOM) and much too on the Cuban show, which coincidently clashed with the Paris one further down in my blog (she hadn’t seen the show) but formed an interesting comparison for me. There is a curatorial aspect to my project now which makes me prick up my ears when I see what goes on behind the scenes. It certainly makes you appreciate the efforts involved. House of Illustration even sent a small crew to go out to Cuba to research for the show, it’s a huge task to put on these exhibitions and you can only admire the effort that goes into it. It’s also a reminder to get my teeth into the nitty gritty of JS’s stories, and to use his words to faithfully represent his stories to help with my curation of objects which, since Olivia’s talk, and partly influenced by, I have made a list of rules for.
Annebella Pollen 22/1/20
Annebella Pollen is a social and cultural historian who researches art, craft, design, dress and photography across a range of periods and case studies. She is Principal Lecturer in Art and Design History at the University of Brighton, UK and the author of The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift: Intellectual Barbarians (Donlon Books).
Formed by John Hargrave in 1920, the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift were an extraordinary mixture of the archaic and the hypermodern. A back-to-the-land movement that used the techniques of contemporary advertising, it offered a holistic, dazzling vision. As Hargrave wrote in 1924: “The method of the Kibbo Kift is based upon a direct appeal to the senses by means of colour, shape, sound and movement, that is, by every form of symbolism.” Guardian 2/11/15
Annebella’s amazing (really is) forensic journey into the Kindred of the Kibboutz Kift left me personally uncomfortable, nothing to do with Annebella’s research or presentation, just the whole KKK thing, the steady drift into a cult, the Orwellian whiff of “all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others” namely Hargrave was boss (period) - and no matter how good or honest the initial intentions were, it didn't go well in the end when the uniforms, militaristic marching etc etc came out. Finally, easy for me to say with subsequent upheavals in social cultural history adding weight and perspective etc, but with the knowledge of what the US KKK stood for, there would be no way I would ever want to share those same initials - and then don some pointy hats just to muddy the waters. Couldn’t they have just come up with something else
...from the Guardian
‘Taken in 1929, there is something disquieting about these black and white photographs. You feel as though you have intruded on the rites of a secret society that may or may not be benign, that indeed intends to be ambiguous and unsettling. ‘
And then there was the final shot of Hargrave himself, the (incontestable) leader looking every bit like Oswald Mosley himself. Deeply fascinating, many issues to discuss, the rise of cults and their demise - but not necessarily food for thought for my MA. It did make me watch ‘Wild Country’ about Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho) especially as I knew two friends who became sannyassins, which was every bit as unsettling as I thought it would be.
