Leo Schulz
Two very different openings last night.
A Gentleman of Bacongo at Daniele Tamagni's book launch in Redchurch Street
At the Wilson Williams gallery in Queensdown Road was Both Ends Burning, a show of East London art as love, pain and the construction of the border between the personal and the social. Curator/artists Debra Wilson and Chiara Williams pour their lives into their gallery, a Victorian terrace overlooking Hackney Downs. It’s a smart, simple, ‘white cube’ space, consisting of three rooms, one of which, at least last night, was being used as a bar. The other two were dedicated to a group show of artists who Wilson and Williams are hoping to nurture to success beyond the East End avant-garde.
My personal favourite was Williams’ Venus de Milo‘, an ‘assemblage’ consisting of a vintage turntable and an innard of a cathode-ray television. I liked it less for the claimed insights into the fetishising of image of Venus in a patriarchial society and more for its lightness and wit–a dry paintbrush replacing the needle on the turntable, and a cutting from the Financial Times covering the disc.
I Love You by Sardine and Tobleroni
The strongest work is probably Sardine and Tobleroni, a curious confluence of Gilbert & George and Jake and Dinos Chapman. DNA Dump is a funny, compelling, slightly revolting double self-portrait. It is complemented, if that is the word, by a cute, girly, pink, ceramic-lace frame, titled I Love You, carrying photographs of the two artists decorated with felt-pen doodles.
The second opening was at a ‘project space’ on Redchurch Street made available by the property developer Londonewcastle. On show–to a massive, enthusiastic crowd, many of whom had queued in the cold–were photographs by Daniele Tamagni recording the stunning dandyism of Sapeurs, a little documented sub-culture of the Bakongo, a demography focused in the urban spread of Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo.
The exhibition has come from Paris and supports Tamagni’s book, Gentlemen of Bacongo
The pictures shock several times through. The first is sheer gorgeousness of the outfits, colour-coded, designer goods, loud, assertive, but always elegant. For all the density and clamour, there are rules ensuring simplicity: formality is absolute, only three colours are allowed.
Daniele Tamagni at the launch of his book, Gentlemen of Bacongo
The next shock is the self-realisation that images of such exuberance are never seen in the context of Africans in Africa. Beauty, truth, insight, tenderness, aggression, understanding–there is plenty of emotion in African art, in the musical cultures, to take one example, of Lagos and Soweto. But never exuberance, a wild, careless, in love with the joy of life.
And then you see the Africa you expect, the images we associate with placenames like Brazzaville, the deep poverty, the widespread squalor. The contrast between the landscapes of despair and the clothes of happiness is the story of these men–they are all men–whose philosophy is that eating is for the fickle: looking good is life.
Galleries of the exhibitions can be seen by clicking on the thumbs below. There are more pictures on our Flickr site.
Both Ends Burning: Wilson Williams
Gentlemen of Bacongo
Gentlemen of Bacongo
Londonewcastle Project Space
28 Redchurch Street
Shoreditch
E2 7DP
26 – 29 November 2009
Burning Both Ends
Wilson Williams Gallery
30 Queensdown Road
Hackney
26 November – 20 December 2009
Check for opening times: Wilson Williams Gallery
Tags: Art + Design, Bacongo, Books, Daniele Tamagni, Hackney, Redchurch Street, Shoreditch, Stylisticks, Wilson Williams
