Giles Duley worked with Robert Del Naja in Ukraine on a new collaboration with Ukrainian musician Sviatoslav Vakarchuk, Legacy of War Foundation and United 24.
Released 03/02/23.
02/03/2023
23/02/2023
Zanele Muholi in Paris
At la Maison Européenne de la Photographie
The exhibition opened early February, and last until the end of May.
Some of my favourite photos of her photos...
18/02/2023
'Beyond the Streets - London' - Saatchi Gallery
The exhibition opened on Friday.
I was at the press preview the previous day. Many artists were present too, including Shephard Fairey, Lady Pink, Futura 2000, Mode 2, Shoe, and legendary photographers Martha Cooper (from New York) and Beezer (from Bristol, UK).
And I interviewed Mode 2.... More on that next month.
Here are a few video clips:
-
BEYOND THE STREETS LONDON
Exhibiting artists include:
André Saraiva | Beastie Boys | C. R. Stecyk III | Charlie Ahearn | Chaz Bojórquez | Conor Harrington CRASH | Dash Snow | DAZE | Eric HAZE | Fab 5 Freddy | FAILE | Felipe Pantone | FUTURA2000 GOLDIE | Gordon Matta-Clark | Guerrilla Girls | Henry Chalfant | Jamie Reid | Janette Beckman | Jenny Holzer | José Parlá | KAWS | Kenny Scharf |LADY PINK | Malcolm McLaren | Maripol Martha Cooper | Maya Hayuk | Mister CARTOON | MODE 2 | Paul Insect | Robert 3D Del Naja | Shepard Fairey | Stephen ESPO Powers | SWOON | Todd James | VHILS | ZEPHYR | & MORE
(London, UK) - From defiant train writers to powerful large-scale muralists, Saatchi Gallery is thrilled to announce over 100 international artists to be featured in BEYOND THE STREETS LONDON, opening this February.
The exhibition, supported by adidas Originals, will be the most comprehensive graffiti & street art exhibition to open in the UK, and is set to take over all three floors of London’s iconic Saatchi Gallery.
Following successful exhibitions in Los Angeles & New York, BEYOND THE STREETS LONDON will feature new works, large-scale installations, original ephemera and extraordinary fashion that capture the powerful impact of graffiti & street art across the world.
Curated by graffiti historian Roger Gastman, BEYOND THE STREETS LONDON will examine the fundamental human need for public self-expression, highlighting artists with roots in graffiti and street art whose work has evolved into highly disciplined studio practices, alongside important cultural figures inspired by this art scene.
Each of the exhibition’s chapters will explore exceptional moments in the history of this artistic movement; including the emergence of punk; the birth of hip-hop - marking its 50th anniversary in 2023; and street culture’s strong influence in fashion and film.
11/02/2023
My article on Jerusalem-born Jaffa-based artist Dor Guez
Dor Guez frames intimate portrait of Palestinian pluralities
The New Arab
Culture
Melissa Chemam
01 February, 2023
Dor Guez seeks to challenge our perception of his homeland. Over the course of 50 solo exhibitions worldwide, Dor's personal gaze into Palestinian culture, history, and geography through photography, film and archive has been received with acclaim.
Dor Guez, Knowing the Land, London 2022 [photo credit: Dor Guez/Goodman Gallery]
“At the heart of my practice as an artist, I am a storyteller, so it felt natural to be interested in parallel and even conflicting narratives,” Dor Guez tells The New Arab, as his exhibition Knowing The Land at the Goodman Gallery in London concludes.
10/02/2023
100th Window - 10 February 2003 - 20 years
This record was released on 10 February 2003 - the one that sidetracked my life...
“I’m naturally quite a dark character inside and it was a dark time: post September 11 and the Iraq War,” described Robert Del Naja. “It was symptomatic of the isolation, of having to do it alone. It was painful but everyone was demanding a Massive Attack record."
- 'Massive Attack: Out of the Comfort Zone', chapter 10
'What Your Soul Sings' - featuring the mighty Sinead O'Connor,
from Massive Attack's 4th album, 100th Window
In France, music journalist Bertrand Dicale wrote: “Everything is there: introspection and sharing, pain and relief, realism and compassion. iIt’s probably the most stimulating album of 2003, the most intriguing and the most important.”
- 'Massive Attack: Out of the Comfort Zone', chapter 10
Horace Andy, like you never heard him
'Everywhen'
“What really kick-started the making of 100th Window to me was September 11 and the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York,” Neil Davidge told me.
- 'Massive Attack - Out of the Comfort Zone', chapter 10
Massive Attack - 'Special Cases'
09/02/2023
NO MORE WAR
I'm writing further on the consequences of the war in Iraq.
More to come.
Here is an reminder:
05/02/2023
2023 - Let's talk about Iraq, 20 years after the biggest Anglo-American mistake
Since July 2022, I've been thinking about the 20 years of the start of the war in Iraq, in March 2023, and suggested to my co-contributing editors at the Markaz review to dedicate an issue on the country.
I'm also preparing a few other articles.
In a previous post here, I also explained the link between my research on music history and politics, my book on Bristol, and my recent work for a couple of reviews and websites.
Read here: 2003-2023.
As I wrote in this post, I went to the US, to Northwestern University's Journalism school, as the war was starting, in April 2003. In April 2016, I travelled to Iraq Kurdistan, while finishing the French version of my book, working for a charity helping women and displaced people on the ground, more on this work here: Iraq: Action in Kurdistan and Nineveh for IPDs.
Now, thanks to months of dedicated work, TMR 28 is here !
TMR 28 • IRAQ
I asked my friend, the photographer Susan Schulman, who has spent time in Iraq recently, to write a text and share some photographs:
Writer-photographer Susan Schulman documents the climate devastation that has sent many Iraqis into internal exile.
I wrote about music and sound, after interviewing Hardi Kurda,
Hardi Kurda: Archiving the Sounds of Northern Iraq
5 February, 2023 •
Composer, sound artist and researcher Hardi Kurda is founder of Space21, a music festival operating from his hometown, Slemani (Sulaymaniyyah), in Iraqi Kurdistan. Kurda is at the heart of the Archive Khanah: Sounds from Iraq project, a community-based archive celebrating Iraq’s musical and sonic diversity, financially supported by the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture Fund (AFAC). To demonstrate connections between the musical traditions of Iraq, it digitizes selected records, has created an online interactive archival map, and may yet host a physical exhibition.
Read here.
All all the Iraq stories featured here on TMR Issue 28.
-
Post scriptum
Iraq - A bit of Recent History
The modern nation-state of Iraq was created following World War I (1914–18) from the Ottoman provinces of Baghdad, Basra, and Mosul.
It derives its name from the Arabic term used in the premodern period to describe a region that roughly corresponded to Mesopotamia and modern northwestern Iran.
Britain seized Iraq from Ottoman Turkey during World War I and was granted a mandate by the League of Nations to govern the nation in 1920.
A Hashemite monarchy was organised under British protection in 1921, and on October 3, 1932, the kingdom of Iraq was granted independence.
Iraq gained formal independence in 1932 but remained subject to British imperial influence during the next quarter century of turbulent monarchical rule.
The Iraqi government maintained close economic and military ties with Britain, leading to several anti-British revolts.
A revolt in 1941 led to a British military intervention, and the Iraqi government agreed to support the Allied war effort.
In 1958, the monarchy was overthrown, and for the next two decades Iraq was ruled by a series of military and civilian governments.
In 1961, Kuwait gained independence from Britain and Iraq claimed sovereignty over Kuwait. A period of considerable instability followed.
With proven oil reserves second in the world only to those of Saudi Arabia, the regime was able to finance ambitious projects and development plans throughout the 1970s and to build one of the largest and best-equipped armed forces in the Arab world.
The party’s leadership was quickly assumed by Saddam Hussein.
He led the country into disastrous military efforts: first the Iran-Iraq War (1980–88), then the Persian Gulf War (1990–91).
On 6 August 1990, after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 661 which imposed economic sanctions on Iraq.
The Gulf War thus started, as an armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases:
-Operation Desert Shield, which marked the military buildup from August 1990 to January 1991;
-and Operation Desert Storm, which began with the aerial bombing campaign against Iraq on 17 January 1991 and came to a close with the American-led Liberation of Kuwait on 28 February 1991.
Sanctions were still applied during the 1990s.
In 2003, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on New York city in 2001, an American-British coalition launched the Second Iraq War, on false allegations around the search for WMD, weapons of mass destruction.
01/02/2023
A recent review of my (not so recent now) book on Bristol, Massive Attack and their British counter-culture
Published in December 2022, on Goodreads:
"I had a great time reading this book, it’s been truly insightful - insightful into a band that changed the course of British music history, into the socio-political and economic context of Bristol in the ‘90s and the impact the 60s Windrush had on the musical influences of the place around the time and into the connections and tensions between the band’s members.
I was interested to read this book to find out more about the political and social context of the UK at the time and the impact it had on music, specifically on the underground - the book did not disappoint at all. It was a brilliant presentation of the context and the band, going back and forth between the two as you couldn’t have spoken about one without the other.
Thoroughly researched and accessible, I feel I have learned a great deal about a group that I truly love and admire.
A personal critique would be perhaps that the story seems to somewhat revolve around 3D / Robert Del Naja; while I understand he was the main creative and cog in the MA wheel, I wanted to know more about Daddy G and Tricky (particularly their Afro-Caribbean context and how this influenced their career paths in and outside of MA).
Overall, a beautiful read.
I would recommend to anyone who is a fan of the MA phenomenon, British underground and electronica - or simply interested to understand how a phenomenon of this calibre is born."
-
I do want to reply to the criticism, as I heard that a couple of times:
I interviews over 30 artists for this book, and when I met Robert, he completely stood out. Our discussions helped me tremendously and his interest in activism was so genuine, I therefore decided to centre the whole story around his work, to anchor the different elements, music, arts, stage work and politics, around a strong axis.
Otherwise, it would have been an impossible mission in terms of storytelling, and risked ending up sounding like a A to Z on the Bristol scene, with dozens of entries. I didn't want that.
I sometimes think that is why such a book never came to life before I started this work in 2015.
Robert helped me find the inspiration for a strong and unique narrative arche, and I was really grateful.
If anyone want to take another angle, I'm sure, it could be interesting too. Look, Tricky wrote his biography, I reviewed it and interviewed him about it.
As for Grant Marshall (aka Daddy G), he swears he will one day work on a film project about his life... Be patient. Or not!
-
Another short review, extract from Crack Magazine:
-
24/01/2023
Congratulations, John Akomfrah ! Who will represent Britain at 2024 Venice Biennial
The Ghanaian British filmmaker and video artist John Akomfrah will represent Britain at the next Venice Biennial.
Skinder Hundal, the global director of arts at the British Council and commissioner of the British Pavilion, just said in a statement:
"The quality and contextual depth of his artistry never fails to inspire deep reflection and awe. For the British Council to have such a significant British-Ghanaian artist in Venice is an exhilarating moment."
Akomfrah himself replied in a statement:
"I’m grateful to be given a moment to explore the complex history and significance of this institution [the British Pavilion] and the nation it represents, as well as its architectural home in Venice, with all the stories it has told and will continue to."
Born in Accra, Ghana in 1957, John Akomfrah has been based in London since childhood.
He came to prominence in the early 1980s as part of the Black Audio Film Collective (BAFC), a group of seven artists founded in 1982.
From his early years with the BAFC to his recent works as a solo artist, he has explored charged social issues—including racial injustice, colonialist legacies, diasporic identities, migration and extreme weather events—through a distinctive approach to memory and history.
He was knighted in the King’s New Year UK Honours List for 2023.
-
Well known for his "searing video installations" examining issues ranging from climate change to colonialism, I've been following his work closely since I met him in January 2016 at Arnolfini.
He became the main inspiration for my art book as I explain here.
'My favourite show at the Arnolfini was definitely ‘Vertigo Sea’ by Ghanaian British filmmaker John Akomfrah, in 2016! His work with the Black Audio Film Collective and lately Smoking Dogs Film has had a huge influence on my tastes in art and reflections on our post-modern world…'
John Akomfrah in conversation. Photo by myself, 16 January 2016, Arnolfini, Bristol
Recently, his films were shown in many art venues:
- 'Purple' in DC, USA:
The film was created for the Curve at the Barbican centre, just after the artist won the 2017 Artes Mundi prize,
An ambitious project, Purple is an immersive, six-channel video installation addressing climate change and its effects on human communities, biodiversity and the wilderness.
The Barbican wrote: "At a time, when according to the UN, greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are at their highest levels in history, with people experiencing the significant impacts of climate change, including shifting weather patterns, rising sea level, and more extreme weather events, Akomfrah’s Purple brings a multitude of ideas into conversation including animal extinctions, the memory of ice, the plastic ocean and global warming. Akomfrah has combined hundreds of hours of archival footage with newly shot film and a hypnotic sound score to produce the video installation."
- 'The Unfinished Conversation' was screened at Tate Britain, until the end of 2022.
- 'Mimesis: African Soldier' on the soldiers of the Commonwealth is at Bristol Museum now until Jan. 2023: https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/bristol-museum-and-art-gallery/whats-on/john-akomfrah-mimesis-african-soldier/
His work will also be exhibited at the next Sharjah Biennial (7 February-11 June 2023), and then at The Box, in Plymouth, from December 2023.
-
I've been willing to write further about his work and journey for a long time!
As an artist, filmmaker, and thinker, John Akomfrah has helped reshaping the debate on "otherness" in the UK
He is one of the founders of the Black Audio Film Collective, launched in 1982 by a group of Black British filmmakers, based in Portsmouth and in Dalston, East London, mostly in response to anti-racist protests in Brixton from 1981.
The filmmakers were John Akomfrah, Reece Auguiste, Edward George, Lina Gopaul, Avril Johnson, David Lawson and Trevor Mathison. Their work was first screened at Arnolfini in 1986.
They produced award-winning films, photographs, slide tapes, videos, installations, posters and interventions.
John Akomfrah explained in October 2020: “From the beginning, I wanted to be part of a collective, of a group of like-minded artists and especially people of colour. We were into doing our own things, not into trying to get in where we knew we were not expected.”
Among the films were ‘Expeditions: Signs of Empire’ (1989) and the 35mm colour 22-minute short film ‘Images of Nationality’, directed by John Akomfrah and produced by Lina Gopaul (1984), as well as Akomfrah’s ‘Handsworth Songs’ (1986), a reflection on anti-racist protests.
The film offers a deconstruction of the blaming of young anti-racist protestors, and the police’s violent response, together with a lyrical analysis of post-colonial migration history. The film won seven international awards in 1987. It revolves around techniques that made Black Audio Film Collective recognisable: a multi-layered and complex narrative, visual and sonic experimentation, a mix of archival material, newsreels and still photographs of Black people’s lives.
The collective operated until 1998.
A decade later, in 2007, Arnolfini would co-curate a major retrospective of their work with The Otolith Group entitled ‘The Ghosts of Songs’.
Since the dismantling of the collective in 1998, former members Lina Gopaul and David Lawson have created the production company Smoking Dogs Film with Akomfrah. They produced the multi-screened installations The Unfinished Conversation (2012) and The Stuart Hall Project (2013), which provided in depth insight into their major intellectual influence: Stuart Hall. Born in Jamaica, Hall arrived in Britain in 1951 to study at Oxford University. His incisive writing analysed Britain’s imperial and economic disempowerment of its former colonies, as well as the major changes induced in Britain by displacements of colonial subjects.
Akomfrah’s recent work has been more often featured in galleries than on television or in cinemas. He has evolved toward a radical artistic approach and started using cinematic archives to compose art films projected as multi-screened installations, or as he called it himself: “a post-cinematic world of moving images”.
His film Vertigo Sea, created for the Venice Biennale in 2015, premiered in the UK at Arnolfini in Bristol, as many of the images had been found in the BBC Natural History Unit's archives in the city.
In my book on Bristol, I wrote:
'Shattering reflexion on slavery, migration and conflict, the film was projected on three large screens, delivering a sensual, poetic meditation on our relationship with the sea, exploring its role, both mesmerising and tragic, in human history, using television archives and images from the BBC Natural History Unit, based in Bristol.'
“I haven’t destroyed this country,” wrote John Akomfrah in the Guardian at the time of the screening, “there’s no reason other immigrants would252,” offering a vibrant plea in favour of human rights and solidarity. A week later, he was in Bristol for a public conference in the gallery and reminded the audience that “it is not possible to immerse the past for good and expect it to disappear,” in front of dozens of people who opened a debate on Bristol’s past in slave trade and raised again the question of the naming of the Colston Hall.
Vertigo Sea offers a poetic, visual, sonic and deeply moving meditation on our relationship with the sea, exploring its role, both mesmerising and tragic, in recent human history, migration, conflict, slavery and environmental exploitation.
The Guardian’s Adrian Searle described how “the ecological and the political combine in a 43-minute visual assault.” For the creation of the piece, John Akomfrah worked with a huge range of archival footage of the sea from the BFI and the BBC. (Bristol itself came to be at the centre of this exploratory visual project, as the filmmaker did research and used archives from the BBC Natural History Unit, in Clifton). Hundreds of clips and images of the ocean, beaches, skies, icebergs, animals – most notably whales - are used to represent humanity’s violence against nature, and as metaphors for humanity’s violence against itself.
Since 2006, I had regularly been working with one of John Akomfrah's friends – the Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck. And had been introduced to his work, especially while doing research on Karl Marx, James Baldwin, Frantz Fanon and Exterminate All The Brutes on the history of settler colonialism / white supremacy.
His work has been one of the most eye-opening for me and my research since I came back to Britain in 2015, and I'm really grateful for his contribution to British arts.
23/01/2023
Music in the SWANA region: On Rasha Nahas
My latest on music in the SWANA region for The Markaz Review: this month, with the powerfully feminist Rasha Nahas, back with a second album, written in Arabic between her native Haifa and her adopted Berlin.
Berlin-Based Palestinian Returns to Arabic in new Amrat Album
Have a read on The Markaz Review: https://themarkaz.org/berlin-based-palestinian-returns-to-arabic-in-new-amrat-album/
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)