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In Partnership
With:
ROYAL COLLEGE OF
ART |
Supported By:
RAC
EURISTIX
ERNST & YOUNG
AWARDS FOR ALL |
In
Association With:
ADUNA
AFFORD
BLACKWORLD
CIRCLE OF WISDOM
FILM LONDON
LAMBETH LIBRARIES
NEW INITIATIVES
THE NYOYA FOUNDATION
100 BLACK MEN OF LONDON
PAINTED WORD
SCREENSTATION
YOUNG CULTURAL CREATORS |
Gallery Opening
hours
11am-5pm
TUESDAY - SUNDAY |
Organised
By:
BLACK CULTURAL ARCHIVES
1 Othello Close
Kennington SE11 4RE |
T-020
7582 8516
F-020 7582 6571 |
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Dokun
Oyetunde |
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Dokun
Oyetunde graduated from the Royal College
of Art with an MA in Sculpture in 2000 having
received a BA in Sculpture at Wimbledon School
of Art in 1998. Prior to this, he taught and
studied in Nigeria. Superbeing came out of
Oyetunde's interest in the myth of cultures
and their hidden secrets.
The sculptures act as vessels to depict these
myths, burnt into timeless,primordial materials
such as iron and bronze. These almost alien,
sculpted skeletons endowed with pensive heads
borrowed from Egyptian zoomorphic gods stare
with mordacious smiles, symbolising the knowledge
of the person who has crossed the sill of
the unknown and thereby acquired further secrets.
Ultimately,they stand as a metaphor for the
complex layering of cultural identity,a riddle
of empowerment as the perishable human flesh
would be nothing as without this internal
frame. Through representing the division between physical and metaphysical,past
and present, dead and living,they also metaphorically
refer to the mental and physical cultural
divisions evident in today's society.
Since graduation, Oyetunde's interests
have moved from sculpture to also shooting
animation. He uses animation as a less static
and more narrative way to present racial and
cultural issues and opinions. |
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hakim
omitolo |
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Printmaking
graduate from 2000,Onitolo is an artist of
Nigerian heritage who is a printmaker,sculptor
and photographer. His current study and practice
focuses on the visual strategies adopted by
the black artist,and how these in turn engage
with contemp-orary art practice in the UK.More
specifically,it explores how to interrogate
negotiated meanings of the visual in Black
Britishfine art creative practice.
Onitolo's research is an enquiry into
how best to gain a greater understanding of
visual work from the contemporary Black British
artist that is beyond the Eurocentric.This
is predicated on the ideas of intention,subject
and authorship. Britain is beginning to recognise
the Black Diaspora in its contemporary multicultural
diversity in many areas.The research aims
to quantify how that diversity is manifested
in contemporary Black British practise.
JTB uses a mix of references from the chronology
of Onitolo's practice.The letters JTB
refer to the life of John the Baptist the
subject of many Western art religious paintings
and literature.Through JTB, Onitolo juxtaposes
this western context in relation to contemporary
black presence. |
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Jonathan
Ashworth |
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A current Printmaking student, Ashworth cycles
to every political G8 summit that has taken
place, as a show of determination and commitment
to campaigning for Drop the Debt and Make
Poverty History. Previous campaigns have taken
place in Genoa (Italy), Kananaskis (Canada)
and Okinawa (Japan). This year, as an attempt
to fully understand and explore the campaign
issues, Ashworth travelled by bicycle from
Kenya to Tanzania. A journey through remote
villages and impenetrable roads, Sunrise to
Sunset is a documentary of this journey.
It depicts the local peoples struggle for
survival in the face of adversity and highlights
the large economic, social and cultural rift
that is evident between African and the West. |
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kwayie
Kuffour |
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A
graduate from the photography course in 2005.
Kwayie Kuffour's prints focus on African
architecture and its connections with class,
culture,roots and
other cultural infiuences. His photographic
practice dwells on the modern urban environment
in Ghana
in an attempt to re-assess people's
perceptions
of the country.
The architectural prints discuss issues such
as ownership of private property through a
critical view
of the stereotypical images usually associated
with Africa by outsiders.
The coercive nature of Western style on Ghanaian
architecture has become the focus of Kuffour's
photographic practice. He embraces the integration
of international design in the building of
Ghanaian architecture to create a new identity
of urban Ghana. This cross-culture is mainly
born out of Ghanaian expatriates who work
in the West but also own
African properties. |
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catherine
anyango |
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A
current Communication Art &Design student,
Anyango grew up, in the Kenyan capital,Nairobi.
As a child she often visited her father's
birthplace, Kisumu. Today the town is home
to afishfilleting factory, owned by her father.
This then is the focus of her current work.Through photography and
animation, Anyango's output is based
on a personal narrative which draws on real
events and political situations yet interprets
them according to the context of her own situation.
Her documentary animation takes place in the
Great Lakes region of Africa, of which Lake
Victoria is a part. The introduction of the
Nile Perchfish to this area has had disastrous
consequences,destroying the lake's 350 native
species offish. In the UK we hear about events
of national and international importance,yet
on the micro level we have less of an idea
about what effects these events have. It is
this regional and local context that imparts
power to Anyango's work. |
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anthony
burrill |
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A
graphic designer who graduated from the Royal
College in 1991. In 1994 Anthony was invited
to Nairobi by the British Council and the
Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission to lead a
workshop with local students, artists and
designers in order to develop ides for an
anti-corruption poster campaign.
The Swahili words,Sitoi Kitu mean,I will not
give a bribe. Corruption is rife in Kenya,permeating
every tier of society from the police force
to the government itself. The poster designs
shown here are intended to be used as part
of a broader campaign within Kenya to promote
the work of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission.
Anthony is a freelance designer, producing
print, moving image and interactive design
based on direct communication in which humour
often plays a central role. His projects have
included poster campaigns for the London Underground
and Hans Brinker Budget Hotel in Amsterdam. |
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harold
offeh |
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Harold
Offeh was born in Accra,Ghana and graduated
with an MA in Photography from the RCA in
2001. Since then,he has developed a powerful
body of work that engages with issues of identity,represen
tation, language and desire.
Haroldinho,'Little Harold'is
a persona created by Offeh as a response to
his experiences of Rio de Janeiro,during a
two-month residency
in the city. Dressed in a decorated utilitarian
uniform, Haroldinho dances the samba in the
city's famous tourists spots.Haroldinho
is an embodiment of the vibrancy and energy
of Brazilian culture and Brazil's status
as a newly developing nation that is dependant
upon a low-waged,low-skilled labour force
through the mix of carnival razzle-dazzle
costume with manual labourers uniform.
Offeh acts to question the validity of these
things as national signifiers and encourages
us to reconsider national stereotypes and
to question the ways in which we fabricate
and perpetuate our own
histories. Haroldinho is a dancing novice
who is not yet fluent in Brazilian culture
thus raising problems of cultural translatability
yet at the same time hinting at cross cultural
similarities. The work is a layered and open-ended
engagement with national signifiers,con-
structed identities and cultural diversity. |
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Tiago
Borges Da Silva |
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Since graduating in 2004, Tiago Borges has
sold several of his contemporary art pieces
to Sindika Dokolo, a collection of contemporary
African art, which is to be displayed in a
major retrospective this year.
REMAIN deals with issues of perception, knowledge
and experience, and how these mediums contribute
to our relationship with the world and with
those around us. An intimate study on human
relationships, REMAIN suggests that to remain
alight is to remain consequent, both in memory
and history, whether there be emotional or
physical divides or a division between country,
class or culture. Tiago Borges is interested
in breaking constructed metaphor and his work
often forms a commentary on (his) contemporary
African experience in Western mediated centres
of thought. |
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jessica
antwi-boasiako |
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Graduate
from the Communication Art & Design course
in 2005. As a second generation,British born
Ghanaian, Jessica Antwi-Boasiako uses her
own background to create projects that investigate
cross-
cultural refiections.
'Read the Signs' is an exploration of colonial
effects on Ghanaian sign-writing,offering
an insight into the ways cross-cultural themes
are expressed through visual communication.What
happens to visual
communication when cultures mix?Antwi-Boasiako's
initial research took place on a travel scholarship
to Ghana in 2004,investigating the cultural
shifts in Ghanaian visual communication since
British
decolonisation in 1957. Her work focuses on
the'traditional' sign making industry that
runs alongside the commercial graphic design
industry.
Often in roadside studios,Sign writers work
to commission, creating representations for
local shopkeepers and businesses.
Through photography,animation,and asking traditional
British and Ghanaian sign-writers to work
to the same brief,Read the signs questions
how cultural infiuences leave a trace. Imbued
with a wit,charm and style that encapsulates
a Ghanaian spirit,the signage illustrates
the legacy of British colonialism embedded
within the very fabric of the culture itself. |
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Architecture
Project
Tom Coward,
Kirsty Yaldron, Fiona Scott |
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Three
graduates from the Architecture & Interiors
course in 2002, led by Diana Cochrane and
Mark Prizeman, collaborated with Elsie Owusu
from the Society of Black Architects SOBA
to produce an ar chitectural project in Accra, Ghana.
The last significant planned period of interest
in the development of Accra was in the 1950s,
this however did not successfully contribute
to a coherent idea of the identity of the
city.Utilising the'International Style'the
plan exhibits some of the drawbacks of inserting
European-style planning methods into an African
context. The RCA project distinguishes how
processes rather than built form might shape
Accra and proposes typologies appropriate
to the complex conditions of cultural hybridisation.
These proposals provide workable solutions
to existing problems that will only be compounded
by development along European city models,thereby
identifying a specifically African urbanism. |
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Zoe
Auburn |
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A
Goldsmithing,Silversmithing, Metalwork & Jewellery
graduate, Zoey Auburn was born in Zambia and
grew up in Malawi before arriving in the UK
in 1996. Colourfulfine silk and metallic threads
are combined with semi-precious and precious
gem stones; her work takes inspiration from
the shape,form and movement of Zambia's natural
environment.
This coupled with symbolism and imagery from
the natural world here in the UK.Auburn's
work goes beyond what we usually consider
to be 'jewellery; it is also a creative exploration
and cultural journey into the colours, shapes
and forms to be found in the environments
of the two continents. |
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Chris
Ofili |
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Chris
Ofili graduated from the painting department
at the Royal College of Art in 1993. It was
while he was at the College that he made his
now-famous journey to Zimbabwe, the result
of which can be seen in the long series of
iconoclastic elephant dung paintings.
His densely orchestrated paintings explore
and celebrate the intricacies and vibrancy
of cultural diversity. The work is a constant
exploration of the visual representation of
black identity. It exposes stereotypes inherent
in black art through playing with multiculturalism
and deconstructing cultural stereotypes. Public
Enemy and Wanabe were completed in 1992 and
are some of Ofili's lesser known works.
The images show traces of the power of colour,
decoration and sexuality evident in more recent
work. Public Enemy,named after the group,depicts
a violent scene where one figure engages in
the act of self destruction, while the second,
without legs, gets by on wheels. Wanabe depicts
what appears to be a black figure in Western,regal
or military dress.
Ofili's work often plays on African and Western
imagery by cojoining specific symbols of nation
and culture from African dot painting and
Western pornography to the symbolic, iconic,elephant
dung. |
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