LAUNCH TONIGHT!

SNEAK PEEK OF THE CULTURE CLOUD...

LAUNCHING TONIGHT

40 ARTWORKS!

LIVE VOTING!

IT'S GOING TO BE A GOOD 'UN!

'Have a break, get your draw on!'

The technicians are in residence again at the NAE while we prepare for the launch of the Culture Cloud Exhibition on Thursday (more details can be found here). 

After working hard installing the 40 artworks voted to be in the exhibition, local Artist Ging has a break with a cuppa and a pen and gets down to some drawing!

Cafe Re-Opens

Our work experience las- Ingrid cut the tape on our newly improved cafe today! Come and take a look and enjoy our range of delicious international food and drinks Tomorrow, Saturday and everyday! (apart from Sundays)

**COMMENT OF THE PAGE**
Hetain Patel:At Home exhibition

"...Using family members helps us all relate. I'm gonna call my Mum and Gran now!..."

- This 'Comment of the Page' was picked by EVS volunteer Shaden Meleas. Thanks to Hetain Patel for making us all feel a little more 'At Home'.

For every page of the comment book in the NAE gallery we're picking the best comment and publishing it on the blog... will your comment be **COMMENT OF THE PAGE**?

Article by Kate Martin

In conversation with Leah Gordon

Once a year the Hatian coastal town of Jacmel hosts a assortment of Mardi Gras festivities, an event that has been brought into the spotlight through Leah Gordon’s evocative photographs. I have been excited to get my first chance to view Leah Gordon’s exhibition Kanaval ever since I first caught sight of this programme. So when I got the opportunity to hear the artist discuss her work in person I seized the chance; after all who better to provide us with an insight to her work than the artist herself!

If I was starting on a ‘light’ note I would propose that ethnology, anthropology, and classification belong to group of prevailing western discourses that have historically informed the roots of ‘intellectual imperialism’. Yes there was a hint of sarcasm in the use of the word ‘light’! Hopefully this blog won’t read like a maze of indecipherable jargon like when you first chance upon a Homi Bhabha text (I have been there and re-read those texts to many times!)

 In many ways the camera itself was often used as a weapon in colonial domination and its images contributed a hierarchy of power; responsible for upholding the hegemonic cultural order. Difficulties lie in who is being represented and who is doing the representing. So why does Gordon choose to use methods which traditionally have such negative connotations when representing non western culture?

Upon entering the exhibition I found it compelling that Gordon’s images manages to avoid unravelling into a series of essentialist undertones. Gordon raised concerns that a lot imagery had a tendency to portray Haiti as lifeless or dead; both literately and metaphorically. She spoke of how she believed that there was a need for more engagement with the living and their transitional relationships.

In a frank but applaudable statement Gordon stated she felt more comfortable working in black and white film and in many ways her ‘aesthetic is produced through her limitations as a photographer’. Beyond the technical aspects involved Gordon believes that black and white film allows for an exploration of history; a retelling of a history from the ‘others’ perspective. Significantly, Gordon negates her position as storyteller and instead juxtaposes her images alongside their oral histories. This union allows the images them to become active advocates for Haitian people and their culture.

The streets become Gordon’s studio as she stages the photos in what she described as a ‘fashionably distressed’ look. Gordon aims to capture her subjects as they ‘meander’ as there is no pre-prescribed route for the carnival. The images themselves portray the satirical and composite nature of the carnival, which Gordon termed an ‘uncommodified parade’.

People are shown to be wearing exaggerated costumes, which are both sinister and provoking.  There are he’s dressed as she’s, zombies, whores, depictions of the dead, devils and saints. ‘Lancers du Cord’ are often adorned with horns for intimidation and the ropes that bound the slaves. ‘Chaloska’ depicts the Chief Charles Oscar renowned for his corruption and brutality. Many of the costumes illustrate the revolt against slavery and the solidarity that transpired, which forms such an integral part of Haitian history.

The ‘masquerades’ ability to allow its wearer to assume an alternative identity, one which could violate a variety of hierarchies is fascinating. Gordon’s photos depict the interplay between masks, costume and storytelling and appear to suspend time and history. Gordon manages to produce equilibrium between the contextual and the visual resulting in visually striking images with and multifaceted narratives. This is a process of encounter; encountering oneself and encountering ones other.

Leah Gordon :  Kanaval will be on until 11 August in the Mezzanine Gallery.

Join Alice Thickett, Editor of the NAE blog and Project Manager of No Official Name for a Gallery Walk and Talk. Learn more about the artistic themes, and share your opinions about the work.

Saturday 11 August, 12pm

Admission: FREE

Age range: All are welcome

Follow the competition's progress...

Culture Cloud on This is Nottingham << Click here >>

Be Like Theatre round-up by Kate Martin

Competing with the sunshine and the imminent bank holiday weekend is no mean feat, but Thursday the 31^st May presented another compelling talk. Drawing inspiration from Hetain Patel’s work ‘Be like Water’, Michael Pinchbeck’s ‘Be like Theatre’ discussed the relationships between performance, performer, artwork and artist. In a witty way the talk parodied a theatrical recital split into five composing acts (resourcefully named by myself!)

Act 1- ‘The outside eye’

Pinchbeck opened by reciting a letter written to his close friend Hetain Patel, which embraced sentiments of their friendship from past to present. The reading drew strong parallels between repetition, popular culture and domestic life in both Pinchbeck’s and Patel’s work. Symbolically, the letter became a narrator for the content to follow and introduced the artist being the artwork and audience simultaneously, juxtaposition Pinchbeck termed the ‘outside eye’.

Act 2 –‘Wing space- the bare aesthetics’

Pinchbeck explained how the artist as object had initiated a move away from the tools of production in dramaturgy; opening up the ‘weave of performance and the process of weaving’ or the ‘wing space’ an area not usually seen but reserved for the invisible processes. This paradigm was a true questioning of what art is and a strengthening of interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches. Artists began define the perimeters of their work through performance and as described by Pinchbeck these ‘happenings’ became real life ‘action paintings’.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTEFKFiXSx4&feature=related- John Cage 4’33

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qml505hxp_c –Bruce Naumen- Walking in an exaggerated manner

                                                                                                                         

Act 3- ‘The artist becomes me’

Pinchbeck discussed how art became a lifestyle choice for many artists and their bodies became an instrument for their practice. As such, the artist could embody the art work through using their body as the canvas.  What was fascinating these developments was their ability to play with the power relations between binary opposites; composition vs decomposition, construction vs deconstruction, the self vs the other. Extreme examples of performative art incorporated self destruction, objectification and duration. A few of which can be sampled below if you desire! The second in particular may not be for the weak stomached!

PLEASE NOTE: These videos contain graphic images which some people may find disturbing.

http://vimeo.com/16280427 - Teching Hsieh- One Year Performance 1980-1981

http://www.martincreed.com/site/works/work-no-503 - Martin Creed Work no. 503- Sick Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26R9KFdt5aY  - Chris Burden Shot

Act 4- ‘Theatre and the Theatre Space’

This act focused more upon how the deconstructions of these traditional frameworks are being used within the theatre space. Artists, writers and directors are working collaboratively to produce experimental theatre drawing from aesthetics, choreography and performance. The narratives and the characters are a constructed showcasing the transition from non performer to performer. Indicative of the characters we can embody and the roles we assume.

http://vimeo.com/40457555 - Akrham Khan and Anthony Gormley- Zero Degrees

https://vimeo.com/16032866- Gob Squad- Kitchen (you never had it so good)

Act 5- ‘A Family Outing’

The final act by Pinchbeck focused on the roles of family and the domestic in the works of Kate Rowles ‘My Wonderland’ and Hetain Patel’s ‘To dance like your dad’. Michael drew on how these works become an exchange of stories; yours & mine to equal ours, which forms a ‘performative reality’.

http://www.katerowles.com/page4.htm  - Kate Rowles- My wonderland

http://www.ventmedia.co.uk/portfolio/dance_like_dad.html - Hetain Patel- To dance like your dad

It is exciting to see how interdisciplinary approaches continue to feed into the art scene. The work of Hetain Pate and Akrham Khan often employs the tradition of culturally specific performance and expresses a dialogue through the body. The strong correlations between video and theatre, acting and portraying make for some compelling aesthetics, which have a vast capacity to engage multiple senses through the use of sound, image and movement.

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If you thought the ideas covered in the ‘Be like Theatre’ talk were interesting don’t forget that the New Art Exchange hosts a number or performative workshops and events alongside its current exhibition programme...

YARD Youth Theatre-#FaceMe

Saturday 30 June, 7pm - 8pm

Admission: £5 (£3 concession)
Age Range: All are welcome

Also showing on

Thursday 12 July, 7:30pm
Contact Theatre, Manchester.

Please visit the website below for further information.

www.contactmcr.com/

YARD Youth Theatre meet every Tuesday at 5 - 7pm (15yrs - 25 yrs) and Wednesday at 5 - 7pm(11yrs - 14 yrs) and are always looking for new members, so why not come along and give it a try its free! If you’re interested contact rachael@nae.org.uk  or call 0115 924 8630