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Intelligence Now! The October Gallery Celebrates 25 Years
By Aidan Jones
15/11/2004
William S. Burroughs, Untitled.Spray paint on paper. Courtesy The October Gallery.
Pulling on a party hat and dusting down his best outfit, Aidan Jones headed to the capital to help celebrate the October Gallery's 25th birthday.
Launched on the same day President Bush won 'four more years' the 25th anniversary exhibition at London’s October Gallery is a timely reminder that life beyond our own borders is richer and more complex than some would have us believe.
Intelligence Now!, celebrating the efforts of the gallery to promote contemporary cross-cultural artists and on show until January 29 2005, bristles with ideas and experimentation.
Some of them work and others are more opaque. Either way the range of styles, meanings and mediums makes for a provocative visit to this thoroughly unconventional gallery.
Ira Cohen, Jimi Hendrix. Photographic print on Mylar-type material. Courtesy The October Gallery.
"Art is a way of making people see that nothing is achieved by following a path you don’t understand," Nigerian painter, poet and storyteller, Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede, explained. Inspired by Yoruba folk-tales and driven by his gift for storytelling, Jegede weaves lyrical metaphors into his small, intense and alluring paintings.
Themes of power, poverty and wasted efforts are prominent as Jegede rails against those he considers responsible for suspending the development of Africa.
"History tells us that bad government and injustice sow the seeds of revolution. On our own we can suffer hunger but can we let our children take it? Sooner or later people will rise up and demand something new. It is inevitable," he said.
The exhibition showcases a range of colourful and striking non-political works. But the presence of artists such as Jegede and Palestinian-born, Laila Shawa, show how urgent political and social need in the majority world translates into engaging and expressive art.
Paul Friedlander, Lightwaves. Detail from wave equation light installation, wave machine, light, 2003. Courtesy The October Gallery.
A study of the work downstairs rightly complicates our perception of faraway cultures. Unfamiliar images implore us to look with fresh eyes and shake-off the layers of assumed knowledge and cultural stereotype.
Acclaimed for her political work, including the Walls of Gaza series, which depicts messages of defiance against the Israelis scrawled by the inhabitants of the war-torn city, Shawa’s selected painting shows a more personal and humorous side.
She is at pains to point out, however, that politics is never far from her mind, "I was born in Gaza and have lived amongst violence and corruption so I always seem to revert back to the political."
The October Gallery, which is wholly dependent on charity donations for its survival, is all about making distant artists, cultures and unexpected art forms less remote.
Rachid Koraïchi, Path of Roses, 2001. Steel. Courtesy The October Gallery.
The Vasulkas, an Icelandic-Czech couple in their 60s who shared the cosy upstairs theatre with the Theatre of All Possibilities, perfectly represent this manifesto.
Pioneers of electronic art, Steina and Woody Vasulka, teamed-up with the 35-year-old theatre group for a unique collaboration of digital art and virtual acting.
Human performers acted out a play live alongside automated characters composed on a computer. Advancing on animated characters such as Shrek, the credibility of the November 13 performance was dependent upon the emotional responses programmed into the virtual robotic characters.
This digital technology had previously been dominated by corporate sponsors and has only recently been taken into the public realm. With this in mind, the fusion of technological prowess and theatrical reality is about as avant-garde as it gets.
El Anatsui, Flag for a NewPower, 2004. Liquor bottle tops, copper wire. Courtesy The October Gallery.
You would be forgiven for walking passed the unassuming doorway to the gallery. However, to do so chances missing a captivating and challenging exhibition set in a comfortable space that feels more like the home of an eccentric relative than an art gallery.
Dominated by El Anatsui’s vast bottle-top tapestry that curls onto the floor, the main room also hosts an array of installations, paintings, photographs and sculptures.
The October Gallery, named after the month it opened and a season of productivity and harvest, is unusually laid-back and accommodating - reflected in its popularity amongst school groups.
It is an ideal space for Intelligence Now! The café, garden and mini-theatre provide a fitting venue for the series of seminars, performances and screenings that will accompany the main exhibition throughout the winter.
October Gallery
24 Old Gloucester Street, London, WC1N 3AL, England
Open: Tue-Sat 1230-1730
Closed: Mondays and Sundays
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