Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
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Grayson Perry, ‘It's Never Too Late to Have a Happy Childhood’, 2000.
Winner of the 2003 Turner Prize.
Reviewed by: Jo Coupe
In today's climate of political apathy, it sometimes appears that people have become wary of expressing an opinion without irony. Not so the artists showing in 'Protest and Survive'.
I can't remember having walked around whole roomfuls of contemporary art which unashamedly sets out to communicate a message to its audience. The exhibition tackles issues such as race, gender, sexuality, injustice and party politics, without seeming like a 'check-list' of social ills.
In 'Protest and Survive', appearance is subordinate to message, hence the show has no overall visual coherence. This is not to say that there is not beauty to be found: Rob Pruitt's fountain of Evian water is not a piece to contemplate with a hangover, and Grayson Perry's sumptuous glazed pots incised with images of childhood abuse seduce and repel in equal amounts. The more traditional tools of the campaigner are employed by Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Christopher Wool in their unlimited-edition apocalyptic posters. Documentary photography, street performance and caricature are also well represented, but often subverted. Recent 'protests' may be more self-aware than they were forty years ago, but they are still far from cynical or self-referential. However, some of this art seemed less at home in a gallery than it would be, exposed to a huge audience in the mass media.
On my way out of the Whitechapel, I felt the warm glow of idealism subside, as I was reminded that the same level of dissent didn't continue into the outside world. A copy of The Big Issue guest-edited by Wolfgang Tillmans in my pocket softened the blow, but I was left thinking that it was time that artists started ranting more.
Writer detail:
JO COUPE
is a Newcastle-based artist who rants a lot.
Venue detail:
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