Artipedia - Arts News

New Art Exchange and Centre for Contemporary Art Nottingham

Once upon a time in the West there was Lace

An exhibition by Godfried Donkor at Wollaton Hall, Nottingham, 11 January - 8 February 2008

Together with a cross-disciplinary public program and publication examining the histories of, and culture
after, slavery.

During the Industrial Revolution Nottingham was known the world over for the manufacture of lace. British-Ghanaian artist Godfried Donkor spent the summer of 2007 - the bicentenary of the abolition of the UK Slave Trade Act - investigating the ties between this genteel, luxurious commodity and the horrors of the cotton slave plantations in the Caribbean and the American South. The research culminates in Donkor’s solo exhibition at the Yard Gallery at Wollaton Hall in early 2008. The Elizabethan manor is also home to the Industrial Museum that holds a number of examples of lace machinery that may have woven cotton that once passed through the hands of slaves the other side of the Atlantic.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is six outfits - worn by models at the opening — made from black, blue and orange lace, evoking the brilliantly colored Swiss and Belgian-manufactured lace garments prized by West African communities today. The collection consists of two ‘hoodies’, a pair of corsets and mini-skirts, a jean-style jacket and trousers, and a customized version of the black lace dress worn by Goya’s celebrated ‘Duchess of Alba’ (1797). These, and a number of new paintings executed on pages from the Financial Times, are embroidered with a collision of African, British Imperial, Nottingham-related and Dance Hall motifs that together evoke the triangular, traumatic journeys of peoples, cultures and commodities across the Atlantic past and present. Half the exhibition will be an installation Donkor will produce with Theatre Design students from Nottingham Trent University.

The exhibition is contextualized by a public program, which will then be documented by a reader illustrated by Donkor’s installation (and interpreted by an essay by Courtney J Martin). The exhibition opens on the 11 January with an afternoon symposium at Broadway Cinema that aims to interweave various historiographies of slavery: art, literature, local, British and “from below” (slave rebellions, women and slavery). Speakers include Prof Dick Geary, Dr. Sheryllynne Haggerty, Jane-Marie Collins and Dr Celeste-Marie Bernier from the University of Nottingham’s cross-departmental Institute for the Study of Slavery. They are joined by Godfried Donkor, in conversation with Frank Abbott, School of Art and Design, NTU, and Dr Alan Rice, author of Radical Narratives of the British Atlantic (2001), whose lecture evolves out of Trade and Empire: Remembering Slavery which he co-curated at Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester in 2007.

The time-frame shifts with a series of Friday morning lectures at Broadway, considering resonances of slavery in contemporary art and visual culture, beginning with Kobena Mercer on 11 January (author of Welcome to the Jungle: New Positions in Black Cultural Studies, 1994), who will be asking What is Afro-Gothic? in relation to slavery’s after-images in British and American art. On 18 January artist Hew Locke will present his critical, Carnivalesque interpretations of the co-mingling of Imperial, African and indigenous influences in British Guayana today. The series closes on 8 February with Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun (author of More Brilliant Than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction, 1998), of the Otolith Group, who will present research towards Otolith III. Their next film-essay centers on the Detroit electro group, Drexciya, named after a utopian colony in the Atlantic Ocean populated by heroic aquatically-evolved descendents of the unborn children of African women
drowned during the
Middle Passage.

The residency and exhibition are curated by Michael Forbes (NAE), and the public program and publication are formulated by Alex Farquharson (CCAN). NAE and CCAN thank its partners on this project: Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham University, Broadway Media Centre, Nottingham City Council, Arts Council England and Wollaton Hall. When open in 2008 and 2009, New Art Exchange and CCAN will change the face of the visual arts in the City.

The Symposium and Lectures are free, but it is necessary to book a place as they are limited. Contact janet@ccan.org.uk

Deutsche Bank

“XXL”, 2007
Plastic foil, punched eyelets,
screen printing and collage, 150 x 99 cm, number of pieces: 75.

Isa Genzken, “XXL”, 2007
Deutsche Bank edition

Isa Genzken has created an edition especially for Deutsche Bank based on the aesthetic of her project for this year’s Biennale. With her artwork “Oil” the artist represented the Federal Republic in the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, which Deutsche Bank supported as the main sponsor.

Isa Genzken says that her work “has to have some link to reality.” This is the context in which “Oil”, the work of art she designed especially for the Biennale, is to be understood. “Oil” deliberately plays with different levels, referring both to something tangible — a scarce global commodity — and to the abstraction of the metaphor. “Oil” is an expression of the times in which we live, and reduces complexity to a meaningful image, which, it is not surprising, is used in various slogans and has come to symbolize the crisis of the future as well as an expression of freedom.

With the “XXL” edition, Isa Genzken takes up elements from this installation again. The white letters “XXL” printed on shiny black foil, represent, like “Oil”, both subtle and obvious criticism of a society of consumers who always want more. By using everyday utensils such as plastic foil, mirroring elements and found objects alongside “traditional” artists’ materials for the edition — in the same way as she does in her installations — her work is loaded with both personal and social and
architectonic references.

In the early 1990s, Genzken’s first works on paper and photo series were acquired for the Deutsche Bank Collection and new pieces have been added up to the present. During this period she has been involved in numerous ways with Deutsche Bank’s art activities. For example, the artist developed the project proposal “Weltempfänger” (World Receiver) for the “Moment” art series, launched by Deutsche Bank to bring art into the public space. This year Deutsche Bank not only supported the German Pavilion, but also sponsored Isa Genzken’s artworks in the exhibition entitled “skulptur projekte münster”. “XXL” expands the scope of this extensive commitment.

Given the social relevance of the artwork, it only seems appropriate that the sales of the “XXL” edition should go to the Deutsche Bank Africa Foundation. The work of the foundation focuses on four areas: education, creating jobs, as well as combating crime and poverty. With its programs under the motto “Touching Lives — Shaping Futures”, the Deutsche Bank Africa Foundation intends to make an effective and tangible contribution to social and economic renewal over the next three years. The project “Nurturing Orphans of Aids for Humanity” (NOAH) is aimed at caring for the approximately three million healthy orphans of Aids expected by 2008, for instance. The second major project of the Africa Foundation, the Educational Development Programme (EDP), promotes schools in structurally
weak regions.

The DB Africa Foundation forms part of Deutsche Bank’s overall corporate social responsibility activities, which play a pioneering role in the private sector. The publication of Isa Genzken’s edition allows Deutsche Bank to combine two essential aspects of its corporate social responsibility activities: dedication to socially disadvantaged groups and support for contemporary art.

Proceeds go to the DB Africa Foundation www.deutsche-bank.de/csr/Soziales_8960.html

For details about the edition please contact store@muse-store.de

Additional information is available at:

http://www.db-artmag.de
http://www.deutsche-guggenheim.de
http://www.deutscher-pavillon.org

Deutsche Bank’s Corporate Social Responsibility
Deutsche Bank is committed to the realization of a large number of corporate social responsibility activities that go beyond the sphere of the company’s business operations: through donations and sponsorships, the bank’s own projects and, to no small part, employees’ volunteer work. With its foundations and non-profit organizations, the bank is an active global corporate citizen dedicated
to sustainability.

For more than 25 years, Deutsche Bank has been committed to promoting contemporary art. Under the motto “Art at Work”, the bank systematically acquires contemporary international art and displays it in bank buildings and exhibitions around the globe. With more than 53,000 works of art, the Deutsche Bank Collection is considered the world’s largest and most important corporate collection.

http://www.db-artmag.com
http://www.deutsche-bank-stiftung.de/

PAN | Palazzo delle Arti Napoli

Hung Tunglu
Padmasambhava
2002
3D Photograph on hologram
140 x 140 x 12cm
6/8
Courtesy ART & COLLECTION GROUP

Tracce nel Futuro | Footprints into the Future
Until February 25th 2008

A-Min, Chen Chieh-jen, Hsiao Sheng-chien, Huang Sheng-yen, Hung Tunglu, Li Jiun-yang, Li Ming-tse, Lin Shu-min, Liu Kao Sing, Lu Mu-jen, Sheu Jer Yu,
Tu Wei-cheng

Curated by Julia Draganovic and Tseng Fangling
http://www.palazzoartinapoli.net

Becoming aware of one’s historical-cultural background to represent its multiple facets in an innovative artistic production; crossing the bounds of the ancestors’ models; managing to say something new: these are the themes of Tracce nel futuro | Footprints into the future, the exhibition curated by Julia Draganovic, Artistic Director of the PAN — Naples, Italy, and Tseng Fangling, Chief Curator of the Kaohsiung Fine Arts Museum — Taiwan. Tracce nel futuro is the third exhibition in the cycle dedicated to the theme of “Challenges”, which is held at the PAN from November 16th to February
25th 2008.

After exploring the image of the modern hero and beauty in a post-organic world, it is now time to ask ourselves: is a form of creative innovation that takes into account the cultural heritage, tradition and all that contributes to the making up of a people’s identity possible in today’s world?

An answer is provided by the works of 12 Taiwanese artists, who are called upon to tell about the transformation of oriental aesthetics and the rituals rooted in their Buddhist and Taoist culture through a fully contemporary language.

Among the exhibits will be Hung Tunglu’s mangas, moving in the lightbox among the traditional elements of Buddhist and Taoist spiritualism; Li Ming-tse’s paintings which — only at first sight — look like typical Chinese ink; a fake archaeological site on whose ancient walls Tu Wei-cheng displays accessories of the contemporary world, and the partly interactive installations by Hsiao Sheng-chien and Lu Mu-jen.

The exhibition also includes works by Chien Chieh-jen, who’s work testifies of the performances organised with former factory workers in dismissed industrial plants to tell their desperate attempt to perpetuate the history of 20th-century labour-based Taiwanese economy.

An ideal conclusion for our pathway is provided by a taste of high-tech Zen meditation. Lin Shu-min’s Inner Force proposes a contest between two people sitting one in front of the other who see the Alpha waves produced by their own brains taking the shape of a lotus projected on the floor. Like in the most classical of Asian traditions, the winner is the one who is more relaxed and can, therefore, produce more flowers!

In collaboration with
Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan

Supported by
Council for Cultural Affairs, Taiwan
Taiwan Cultural Center, Paris
ART & COLLECTION GROUP
Yang Ming Group

opening hours
9.30 am - 7.30 pm | Sundays and holidays: 9.30 am - 2 pm
Closed on Tuesdays
The ticket counter closes one hour earlier.

info
+39 081 795 86 04-05
info@palazzoartinapoli.net
http://www.palazzoartinapoli.net

press office PAN
sarah galmuzzi
+39 081 795 86 43
sarah.galmuzzi@palazzoartinapoli.net

press office CIVITA
barbara izzo
+39 06 692050220
izzo@civita.it

PAN | Palazzo delle Arti Napoli
Via dei Mille 60
80121 Napoli
P +39 081 795 86 04-05
F +39 081 795 86 08