Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
Brixton Market, London
3 May –26 July
Reviewed by: Jason Cunningham
Brixton-based curator Indra Khanna presented one artist per week in the bustling South London marketplace. Thirteen contemporary exhibitions were installed on a barrow amongst the chandlers of Brixton's Saturday market. The artists were presented alongside Khanna, and were constantly addressing the diverse reactions of their spectators. The work, often site specific, engaged with the materials of the market and explored themes of commerce, craft, the viewing space and the trade of ideas. The work harnessed the packaging, the performance, and the transactions of the marketplace, attracting hundreds of people a day and breaking down the barriers surrounding commercial gallery viewing.
The location of this often visually complex barrow of goods changed frequently and the work was unpredictably juxtaposed with the other stalls. Regulars to the market would interpret the range of concepts and perhaps the unfamiliar disciplines, and would judge later work in the light of their initial reactions to the project. Khanna's brief to the artists was not to attempt to sell work, but rather to exhibit – promoting discussion so that a cultural transaction would ensue even if the profits did not roll in. The performance and installation was more of a showcase than a serious retail opportunity.
The barrows responded to the functional location and created an often ironic craft stall that adapted perceptions of the art market. Jaimini Patel presented cakes that were modelled on the buildings constructed from the profits of commodity and the slave trade. The artists proposed and performed, running the stall, pitching their wares and competing for the attention of passers-by. Local artist Harald Smykla 'refaced' banknotes by drawing the customers' portraits across those on the notes. The customer would circulate the note by paying Symkla the face value of it. From the outset 'FlyPitch' was an exercise in advertising.
For more information visit www.flypitch.com
Writer detail:
Jason Cunningham is a writer
and bricoleur.
Venue detail:
Brixton Market
Brixton Station Road, London SW9 8JR
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