Friday 8 August 2014

Craft and Controversy @ studio1.1

 Thanks to everyone for coming along last night and making the night a success.
 Sasha who I had met before and showed his work in the Art Converters at studio1.1 said it was the best show he had seen along side Matisse at the Tate and was going to go back and see the work without so many people and tell all his arty friends to come along and have a look...

















Rebecca Lindsay- Addy Could do with an explanation of the intentions of the two figures displaying racist black stereotypes?
I’m interested in breaking down barriers of sexism, race and minority groups putting things out of context and questioning our own prudishness. The Christmas Fairy in a the show called ‘Craft and controversy’ was intended to embrace difference and question both my own tolerance and that of others. 
 When I think of a fairy they are always white light and fluffy I wanted to question this stereotype and to show a different side to the conseived idea of what a fairy looks

like. I had done a previous Xmas Fairy which was old and fat 
 I try and find the beauty in what may be considered ugly.
The ‘Golli What’ was obviously inspired by the 19th century Golliwog toys which caused controversy and was latter banned from production as they were deemed racist. 
As a Gay man I am only to aware of the lean to the right with UKIP being given a platform in the media in the local elections. Which will not only affect myself as a gay man but other minority groups. We need to keep looking back at how things in the past have shaped modern thinking allowing us a rich diversity of cultural exchange and a considerable amount of acceptance of difference. 
 Its important to remind our selfs of the things that others endured for our benefit and if we neglect to do this then the very thing we strive towards a society where colour and sexual orientation just are. Become forgotten and then the bigoted fascists who are a threat to all minority groups and that includes white women are given a voice and allowed to dictate and discriminate.


http://www.spiked-online.com/freespeechnow/fsn_article/exhibit-b-we-must-fight-for-the-right-to-be-offensive#.VCSd70v0opF
















1 comment:

  1. Hi Rebecca here.

    Only just saw your response.

    I understand in some part what you are getting at. But just because you are gay does not mean you are entitled to reappropriate racist stereotypes of black people, im mixed race of white and black african descent, and a queer woman, but i would never feel comfortable reapproprating racist stereotypes of south east asian woman in this way, for example, or any race I am not belonging to. Also sexuality and race are very different experiences and things. They intersect in various ways yes, but they are not the same.

    Mainly I found the images distressing, upsetting and triggering, maybe you want this maybe you don't, if so you should be aware. I wonder if you find those sculptures as upsetting? Or are aware of how how upsetting people of black heritage may find them? It makes it hard to me to see past that really. Towards this progression you speak of. I just feel the critique isn't clear enough there, you talk about your own tolerances, maybe if you'd put yourself in the firing line I would have seen that in the work. But see the problem is its as if you don't really have to account for anything.

    Which I guess fits to my next point, you speak of endurance, and the stuff others have gone through in the past and we benefit from. Do you mean the stuff that has happened to black people and other races, that you as a white person benefit from? If so we are talking about privilege. What about your privilege in making the work. The artworld, in terms of the artwork being displayed, is still mainly that of white men. So for one of those white men to fill that space with racist imagery... is uncomfortable to say the least.

    When you make this work you play with possibly sign value, one you are able to distance yourself, its almost playful in its aesthetic, but see that sign value is ingrained in the black artist meaning they can not distance themselves from the work, meaning it makes people often more uncomfortable... im not being perfectly articulate. And black artists are often seen as artists making work about race even when they aren't, and woman making art about woman, so reductively and you get to make this sculptures and be all controversial and whatever and bypass that. you have a freedom from that history and weight. But the point is, white people put a black woman cause of her big boobs and big arse in a museum, and experimented on her... and the past isn't simply the past. This gets too close to re enactment for me.

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