Claiming to 'explore difference and cultural identity through jewellery, photography and installation'
The handout for the exhibition sets a scene for culturally diverse work being shown. Its premise recognises that identity has been the subject of many recent presentations in the visual art world, and yet goes on to claim that these exhibitions have focused on terminology that reinforce stereotypical labels such as 'them', 'us' and 'others'. In my experience this is not a wholly accurate assessment. Many exhibitions I have recently seen actively attempt to dispel such narrow-mindedness. Exhibitions such as `Spin Cycle' curated by Nav Haq at Spike Island in Bristol have deliberately steered away from clichéd representations of the Black or Asian artist as somehow being `exotic' or `alien' and concentrated on the subject matter within the work itself rather than predictable and patronising elements pertaining to an artists' Diaspora.
But let's not start on a bad note. Self contains impressive work by Ari Athans, whose exquisite necklaces made from red felt, stainless steel and silver represent cycles of the moon. These beautifully made pieces of simple and understated jewellery stood out from other more tired and predictable works on display. Roseanne Bartley's project `Culturing the Body' comprises of photographs of her fellow Australians wearing silver tags which denote them as being un-Australian. The documentation is testament to members of the Australian public's different feelings and reactions to the label. The silver tags themselves were displayed in the gallery, and are not unlike army identity tags, or perhaps hospital arm bands. This work seemed to be genuinely socially engaging, even if it was a little obvious.
Perhaps the most visible piece in the show was Patricio Forrester's 'I'll never be a local' jackets. On entering the gallery, hung upon the main wall opposite the entrance were several men's suit jackets. On the back were painted slogans in different languages: You are not even British' or the equivalent in other languages. Having passed another Forrester piece which I wrongly presumed to be a Bob and Roberta Smith work (the lettering style is very similar) going up the stairs to the gallery, I was further confused when these jackets seemed to be an amalgam of the said Patrick Brill's work (B and R Smith's creator) and the felt suit by Joseph Beuys in the seventies. There were people milling about actually wearing the jackets too.
This act in itself was to be commended in an environment where it was unbearably hot. (It had been freezing that day and the gallery had obviously whacked the heating up....Too much.) Wearing jackets in a hot room in an act of politeness to the artist, when everyone else had stripped down to their vest, seemed like a very `British' thing to do indeed.
For a show which billed itself as being something different to the run of the mill 'culturally diverse' exhibition and even went as far to slag off other attempts, Self is in fact a self-obsessed show. It was a shame that the type of work that doesn't normally get such a high profile place in gallery programming (i.e. the jewellery) was completely swamped by huge, over-elaborate wooden vitrines. Small necklaces and brooches were displayed in cases big enough to fit a large stuffed animal. This was incredibly distracting. This seemed to be the only work that wasn't explicitly centred on ethnicity in a trite way. Of course there were cultural connotations and references to it in the work of each jeweller, but it wasn't like the heavy handed approach taken by artists such as Forrester and Pamela So. So's photographs are like so much other work by British-Chinese artists, a snapshot image of a childhood memory, with objects referring to dual heritage - a Chinese dragon here, a jar of Marmite there. There is nothing wrong with this work per se, but I have seen such a lot of it lately.
Self is certainly worth a look if you are passing, there are some good pieces of art in it. I'm a little disappointed, though, that instead of stimulating new and relevant debates around this topic, curators have chosen to tautologically regurgitate what is seemingly Arts Council policy of late: if it's not diverse, it's perverse.
Angel Row Gallery
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