art that makes babies cry

went to an exhibition on sunday, at the hayward gallery, called "africa remix". according to the brochure, it was intended to be an anthology of art from across africa and not necessarily the best of the well known artists.

first off, let me say that there were many good individual pieces and a great range of styles from the most simplistic trash sculptures to the most sophisticated multimedia engrossments.

South Africa was over represented and some countries were not represented at all. I suppose this is to be expected, because many african nations obviously don't have the luxury of artistic leisure while they are busy starving and fighting wars.

this brings me to the reason for this post. Although i was dead impressed by some of the work, and i'll get to that in a moment, the whole tone of the exhibition was, typically enough, "oh poor, starving, war torn, politically abused africa, whatever are we to do?" Fortunately they stopped short of actually putting out a collection plate, but if someone had, and had made an installation of it, I for one would have appreciated the cynicism.
but alas, that was not to be. While not actually schmaltzy, and i shudder to use that word, the tone of the whole thing was a little too patronising. African countries are proud and strong, thats why they're always fighting. The art too, is proud and strong, it doesn't pull any punches. Why not celebrate it instead of
wringing our metaphorical hands?

Some of it was pretty sophisticated, and had cultural reference that is impossible to appreciate without some history. "Ubu tells the truth" for example, by William Kentridge, was a gut wrenching examination of the atrocities of the apartheid years, as exposed by the TRC, through the medium of chalk and charcoal animation. Heavy, very heavy.

A darker piece which I know i did not understand, was the Barthelemy Toguo series of watercolours. According to the guide, "the Dream Catcher series celebrates the human body in all its splendour". You could say that, but having seen the painting it would be like saying a great white shark on the end of your foot was a pesky annoyance.

there were many more, such as the famous sculptures made of guns, that had very political content. naturally, the political sphere is predominant in most african societies and this is reflected in its art. Sometimes it was all i could do to abstract myself and not go rushing for the nearest donation centre.

back to the title of the post. One video installation i was dreading looking at, was emitting a series of quasi orgasmic pained screams and moans. you'd steer clear right? well, i did but finally, after i heard babies crying somewhere in the space, i went to look. did i see a birthing, or systematic consensual rape with a barbed wire dildo? nope. it was a video of a naked girl punching the crap out of a punchbag. needless to say, i worried how such obviously feminist claptrap got mixed up in this exhibition. i couldn't bear to watch such meaningless drivel, so i left. i was glad that it wasn't as bad as i had expected.

the exhibition ended on a positive note with a really good painting of two wrestlers hidden in a field of black and white symbols, and a great (huge) sculpture of a shark / dolphin / crocodile made of a single tree trunk. it was not intricately carved but was unmistakably a swimming thing. sadly, i can't bring you pictures as i was not allowed to take any.

i seem to have shaken the bullsh!t from earlier this week, please forgive my self indulgence. probably something to do with sunshine ;)