A Review of ‘Headload’ at the arc Gallery
Blessed with an unexpected spate of unseasonably warm weather, the evening of September 16th 2010 saw the opening of ‘Headload’: an exhibition of works by Onyema Offoedu-Okeke in which the human body is metaphorically transformed into an economic vehicle. The show featured both paintings and tonal sketches prompting regular arc visitor, London artist Edward Ofosu, to comment how much he admired seeing two entirely different artistic approaches to the same theme. In particular, he was most impressed with the fact that Offoedu-Okeke was able to create such complex images with simple pen and paper sketching, which is perhaps one of the first and most basic forms of ‘mark making’ that art students are taught how to master. Ultimately, for Edward, Offoedu-Okeke’s work acts as an aide-memoir of the fact that there is more to life than modern material objects. Indeed, even that there is a certain kind of beauty in toil and hard work.
Head Posts (of Entableture) (2009)
Indeed, Laura Cockburn agreed with this and, moreover, what above all else pleased her was the way in which the exhibition had been framed and contextualised. As she explained to me, the images themselves – with their bright, almost luminous colours and strong bold shapes – could have easily leant themselves to more of a political-propaganda inspired framing. In other words, they could have been used in order to make an overt and direct criticism on global economic structures and the indifference of the consequences suffered by less economically developed countries by the ‘progress’ of the world’s economic ‘big-guns’. But that is categorically not what ‘Headload’ is about. Instead, Offedu–Okeke’s work commemorates the unfathomable nature of the human spirit in its astonishing flexibility in acclimatising to periods of economic tribulation - a sentiment particularly relevant in the present moment in recent history.
I also spoke to Wendy Charlton who will shortly be assisting arc in our Olympic themed youth project. As a community artist and art tutor herself, Wendy could not help but engage in attempting to deconstruct Offoedu-Okeke’s technique: a process that she also referred to as a ‘deciphering of layers’. This lexical choice seemed to me to be highly appropriate because, as I have noted elsewhere, Offoedu-Okeke’s painted canvases are highly concerned with topographies of surfaces and depths. As Wendy explained to me, in a piece such as Alternative Shoe Industry, if we look hard enough we can still discern visible traces of the artist’s conduction lines, followed by at least one layer of ‘flat’ colour, which is then topped by the final layer of colour which has been applied with a brush or possibility another implement in order to create a highly textured finish that resembles the look of a woven rug. Along with many of the other visitors to the exhibition, she also noted that, in his quasi-pointalistic approach, there is something of an optical illusion going on in Offoedu-Okeke’s art that links it very strongly to an artist like Chris Ofili. This is so in that, from a significant distance, his work displays a recognisable image of a person with a particular object atop their head. However, the closer you get to the canvas itself, the more this identifiable image disappears, instead dissolving into drips and drabs of solid colour. Indeed, this is certainly the case for one of my favourite pieces of the show, Okwo-Mma I (Chainsaw Masquerade). What I particularly admired about this image was the intricate interplay between the warmly hued debased baroque swirls of the background and the barcode-like, steely vertical lines in the foreground.
Okwo-Mma I (Chainsaw Masquerade) (2009)
I also had a very interesting discussion with Evelyn Owen, who is currently undertaking a PhD at Queen Mary, University of London on issues surrounding the contemporary African art scene. I asked her whether, within the contemporary art scene as a whole, the work of African artists is really as marginalised and neglected as we tend to assume: ‘It depends what you mean by marginalised’ she answered, going on to explain that there is masses of information, exhibitions and events that seems to suggest that African market is currently thriving. However, since it is imperative to her studies for her to actively seek out such things, she acknowledged that, to the so-called ‘ordinary’ art lover, these kinds of things may prove significantly more elusive, which does indeed suggest a certain degree of marginalisation within the contemporary art scene as a whole. She also noted the unfortunate absence of Offoedu-Okeke himself from the exhibition and I posed to her whether this made any discernable difference to the way she, as a viewer, ‘consumed’ the art on offer at this private view? ‘Oh, you mean like “The Death of the Author” and all that?’, she answered, referring of course poststructuralist critic, Roland Barthes, famous essay on increasingly incredulity towards authorial intention. In contrast to previous modes of literary criticism, Barthes instead argues that ‘To give a text an Author is to impose a limit on that text, to furnish it with a final signified, to close the writing’ and, indeed, the same could very well be argued about visual ‘texts’, as there is still, to a certain degree, a tendency to position the artist as a reverent and Godly figure whose history, cultural values, religious beliefs, psychological makeup is responsible for furnishing the given artwork with its intended ‘meaning’. Thus, for me, it would have been highly interesting to observe, if Offoedu-Okeke would have been able to be present at the private view, whether this would have altered the way in which the works themselves were received. Would having Offoedu-Okeke there explaining to people about his creations have been enlightening and improved viewer appreciation? Or conversely, would it have been a hindrance that disabled viewers from arriving at their own interpretations of the art?
Kettle Head (2009)
We were also privileged at the private view to have in our midst Sharon Grant, who has extensive experience in local government, is a keen supporter of the arts, and was instrumental in the establishing of the nearby Bernie Grant Arts Centre, which opened in 2007. Sharon spoke to me of her intense belief that art can and should be used as a means of creating solidarity in communities, and that a cultural project such as arc goes a long way towards bringing that about. In other words, that, in a borough such as Haringey, which is such richly multicultural, exposure to, and embarrassing of, art and artefacts from a originating from a culture or tradition which may not necessarily be your own can only ever be a beneficial and mind-broadening experience, teaching you to value culture that different and not to not intimidated by it. She moreover felt it was of critical importance that young people in particular get to experience and reap the benefits of the multilingual, multicultural society of big cities like London, as it affords them so many opportunities an older generation may not have been privy to. And finally, on the subject of opportunities for local youths, here is perhaps the most appropriate place to thank the young local jazz trio – who first joined us on the opening night of Mary Osinibi’s ‘Time Waits for No-one’ exhibition – for their hard work and accomplished talent in again providing such an enjoyable ambiance to the private view of ‘Headload’.
Christopher Yiannitsaros
0 comments:
Post a Comment