Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
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‘Urbanbodies show 1’.
(l to r) Sue Cohen, Stories of grandma, mixed-media, 2005; Barbara Dean, Wedding dress, mixed-media, 2005; Maslen and Mehra, Breathing Space (IV), medium format photograph on Duratrans, 2x1.3m, 2005; Raimi Gbadamosi, Look, neon sign, 2005; John Howe, Mr Noland Class 3C.
127 Brick Lane, London
1 February – 27 April
Reviewed by: Kelly O'Reilly
Brick Lane isn’t the place it used to be. The twenty-four-hour bagel shops and wall-to-wall neon-lit curry restaurants are still there, but its proximity to the City of London and soaring house prices have led to an invasion of cool new media types. This rebranding of Brick Lane – and the many trendy bars, boutiques, nightclubs and loft apartments that have cropped up as a result – can at times hide the richness of its history. The arts scene, too, has inevitably diminished as a result of rent increases: street art and flyposting now offer a richer aesthetic experience than the overt commercialism of most galleries in the area.
‘Urbanbodies’, a group exhibition curated by Sue Cohen, does something to amend this by tapping straight into the ever-changing aesthetics and histories of Brick Lane, providing an unmediated twenty-four-hour art experience that can only be viewed from the street. Seen through the large glass façade of a disused shop, the exhibition bypasses the traditional gallery experience to bring us into direct contact with the work of sixteen artists who explore the use of artificial light across media. During the course of three exhibitions, each lasting a month, the project looks at the contrasts and changes proffered by a part of London apparently dedicated to the pursuit of consumption while still offering up an archaeology of London’s many waves of immigration, working-class communities and social radicalism.
The first exhibition evokes personal stories of immigration and exile through a use of light sources that range from commercial neon to the cosy glow of a pensioner’s parlour. In Stories of Grandma Sue Cohen’s unlikely illustrations on a 1930s fringed lampshade subvert the idea of remembrance as something warm and sentimental. Barbara Dean’s ghostly lit Bride of Christ dress refers us back not only to the diverse religions of the area but also to the cloth trade that relied upon successive generations of migrant workers – Huguenots, Eastern European Jews and the Bengali clothing wholesalers of today. Raimi Gbadamosi’s use of bright yellow neon brings the primary lighting experience of Brick Lane into the exhibition. His flashing question “Are you looking at me?” looks at the interrelationship between race, power and language and presents the Western subject, as tourist, back to himself as a subject of observation.
The second exhibition, by contrast, seems to respond to more international anxieties, and looks at Brick Lane as a site of social radicalism that dates back to the nineteenth century. Anne Rook’s The Big Apple uses the apple as a metaphor for New York City and American economic power. As a mass-produced, globally exported fruit, the apple can be seen as an intruder invading other lands and cultures. Mark Bell’s neon Eraser points rocket-like towards the far corner of the shop, looking at the damaging potential of Western culture to erase and rewrite global values. Marianne Walker’s drawing Worst Case Scenario represents darkness in a way that deliberately refers to the familiar filmic signifiers of threat and impending crisis.
For centuries, light has been an important element in the visual arts and ‘Urbanbodies’ explores the relationships between light and dark, the physical and the intangible through personal history, politics, race and gender. Walking along Brick Lane and encountering the exhibition for the first time, there is a sense of bearing witness to the raw and vulnerable. Without the comfortable environment of the white walled gallery to encode the work, it stands in relation to its surroundings with a youthful uncertainty, and is brave and sometimes idealistic in its attempt to remark upon its location.
Writer detail:
Kelly O’Reilly, curator of the Stephen Lawrence Gallery.
Venue detail:
URBANBODIES
127 Brick Lane, London E1
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