'I will daydream about it all the way back home'

A Review of '"We've Already Paid": Journeys and Kinship' at the arc Gallery.

Humanscape (2009)

The evening of Thursday 27th May saw the opening of '"We’ve Already Paid": Journeys and Kinship': an exhibitions of works by the mixed media artist Jean Joseph, exploring the legacy of the slave trade throughout the Diaspora. This show, which was inspired by Joseph’s recent visit to Ghana, was by the far the most vibrant and bustling exhibition at arc thus far this year, which is a testament to the both the standard of Joseph’s work and her fearlessness in tacking such an emotive and, at times, uncomfortable subject matter. 

At the start of the evening I spoke to a visitor who had also attended our last exhibition, 'Elegant Urban Decay' by Nymeike Onwuka, and could not help but make comparisons between the two. One aspect of Joseph’s work that this gentleman was particularly taken with was its historical dimensions. This lead me to enquire as to whether he felt that Onwuka’s work from our last exhibition – which dealt with sexuality, mating rituals and the body – was, in some sense, lacking in historical engagement: ‘No. Onwuka’s work is about history – the history of the relationship between feminism, tradition and Africa – but this work is about history on a much greater magnitude’. This, I feel, is very true, as Joseph’s work not only deals with the Atlantic slave trade itself, the crux of which lies in the latter eighteenth century, but moreover, with its legacy and effects which can still be felt at the start of the twenty-first century. Indeed, to my mind, one of Joseph’s greatest accomplishments as an artist is her ability to deftly link together historical and transatlantic contexts with a visual delicacy and carefully considered connections between materials and poignant storytelling. 

Across Ancestral Lines I (2010)

As with 'A Moving Exhibition' some weeks ago, once again our converted barge gallery played a pivotal role in the overall experience of the show. This is because, in terms of this exhibition, there was somewhat of a clever overlap between the images depicted in the artwork itself and the venue. Indeed, boats and water are two of the most resonant visual signifiers in Joseph’s work (as well as more generally African history and culture) conjuring emotive images of the transatlantic passage from which, for many, there was no return. Indeed, by holding the exhibition on an actual boat, a deliberate and intelligent parallel is suggested, as, unlike those who were transported from Africa, the guests who attended this exhibition were free to embark, more importantly, free to disembark when they please. In other words, one of the major differences between our experience and theirs lies in the freedom to make that conscious decision.

Human Store (2010)

One of the first things to strike me about Joseph’s work was her use of figures. Within the mixed media canvases on display in this show, there is an overabundance of flat, two-dimensional figures; figures drawn in pencil-like outlines; and figures carefully disguised as smoke, ocean-spray and other incorporeal masses. These techniques all suggest a deliberate denial of human features, which in turn works to reflect the absolute loss of individual identity experienced by those who were enslaved: a process of human commoditisation incarnated par excellence by the painting Human Store. There is, moreover, an assimilation of human figures into the landscape, particularly in a painting such as Humanscape in which the large, horizontal of a slave could be easily mistaken for a large terracotta coloured hill outside the infamous Elmina Castle, Ghana. This raises questions over the possibility (or impossibility?) of separating African people from the African soil, which, of course, is precisely what the Atlantic slave trade in effect did.

Taking pride of place at the head of the ship was Joseph’s major installation piece Sale Over the Century, which consisted of thirty plaster, gesso and gauche masks cast from the faces of people who are descended from former slaves. A visiting artist from Nigeria was very impressed with this piece, praising the innovativeness of the concept. Contemplating the piece further, he commented to me that ‘I will daydream about it all the way back home’: in his case, Nigeria. This struck me as an acutely resonant comment within the context of everything surrounding us at that precise moment. This is because we were standing in the doorway of a boat, in an exhibition of works on all about people’s journeys to and from ‘home’: a passage on which, for many, daydreaming must have been the only form of escape there was.

Kinship (2009)

One of the most commented upon pieces in the exhibition was the painting Kinship. At first, the image seems ordinary enough: there are four coral coloured figures – two men with their hands bound behind their backs who are returning to below deck, a woman on the right hand side of the canvas whose legs are chained to the mast of the ship, and a central figure who looks over towards the men descending the stairs. However, upon further examination the viewer cannot help but be taken aback by the fact that central figure sports a Polo Ralph Lauren hooded top. This deliberately anachronistic choice of costume means that, within the context of the painting, the figure is left both out of place and out of time. In other words, that an act of temporal dislocation has taken place. The clue to ‘making sense’ of this anachronism lies, I would argue, in the painting’s title: Kinship. Here then, we appear youth of African decent who has been assimilated into western, British culture (which is itself increasingly assimilated into American culture, as suggested by the youth’s preference for American fashion brands), but who is forced to observe/confront the unpleasant reality of the slavery which is bound up with his ancestry. Indeed, the way in which Joseph has positioned the youth’s head means that there is a conscious paralleling of the metal ring on his body (his earring) and those metal rings that keeps his forbearer bound to the mast of the ship: that whilst, for him, it is a statement of fashion and of self-expression, for her, it is a form of imprisonment. The message, as such, seems to be that, for those descended from people who were enslaved, the freedom to wear expensive designer tops, as trivial as that may initial seem, is a freedom that was paid for with human blood, and thus a freedom which should never be taken lightly or for granted.

Surf Spirit (2009)

However, my particular favourite piece from this body of work is the one that I feel brings together all these disparate themes, techniques and ideas together most skilfully and most succinctly: Surf Spirit. The painting is divided into two halves, the left side depicting a sort of paved courtyard surrounding by buildings and the right side depicting the sea at sunset. These two halves are improbably and unrealistically merged into each other and an oddly proportioned woman carrying her child on her back transverses the line between the two with her head turned towards the sea. Within this dreamscape there is a great tension between complex detail and an inappropriate sense of flatness and artifice. The left side, which is filled with doors, arches and windows – will all their resonances of entrapment and power-struggles – is highly detailed with a great sense of depth and perspective, yet at the same time, the sea on the right-hand, like Joseph’s use of figure, is improperly flat and two-dimensional. Because of the accomplished level of depth achieved within left-hand side of the paintings, we can only assume that this flatness has been deliberately created in order to enhance the surreal, dreamlike quality of the image. In other words, the essential point is that this image is in no way a reality, but a fantasy vision of escape from the perspective of one who is entrapped: the vista that they are perhaps daydreaming of all the way home.

Christopher Yiannitsaros

arc Research Officer

To read an interview with Jean Jospeh regarding this exhibition click here.

To view the brochure for this exhibition, please click here.