Making Mirrors
25 Jun - 31 Jul 2011
MAKING MIRRORS - OF BODY AND GAZE
25 June - 31 July, 2011
The NGBK exhibition project presents work lying between art and activism that deal with the meaning of racialised identities in western societies.
www.makingmirrors.org
Artists: Dave Ball & Oliver Walker, Sonia Barrett, Danielle Daude, Jean-Ulrick Désert, Farida Heuck, Wayne Hodge, Wolfram Kastner, Rajkamal Kahlon, Philip Metz, Manuela Ritz, Serfiraz Vural & Pasquale Rotter
Through representation, presence and absence, images define and reinforce how we see ourselves and others. The construction of a white, universally accepted, normality, and the simultaneous exclusion of the racialised body of color are also rooted in a media culture which celebrates a majority society perspective whilst overlooking and ignoring positions of color. Others are designated as alien and depicted either as exotic or stereotypes; they are caricatured, silenced, or simply remain absent. The place itself from which these labels and gaze emanates, from which this honouring or ignoring originates, remains unnamed. What then happens when the ruling normality is held before a mirror, when the gaze of the other is reversed? What becomes visible, when the exoticised gaze back?
“Making Mirrors: Of Body and Gaze” brings together artists who deal critically with dominant body images and ways of seeing. They reflect and deconstruct the white gaze, and contrast this with their own perspectives on and concepts of identity.
The exhibition brings together participatory approaches and interventions which move the experience of art beyond that of the white cube or pure observation and into everyday public space; and at times bringing it back into the gallery.
25 June - 31 July, 2011
The NGBK exhibition project presents work lying between art and activism that deal with the meaning of racialised identities in western societies.
www.makingmirrors.org
Artists: Dave Ball & Oliver Walker, Sonia Barrett, Danielle Daude, Jean-Ulrick Désert, Farida Heuck, Wayne Hodge, Wolfram Kastner, Rajkamal Kahlon, Philip Metz, Manuela Ritz, Serfiraz Vural & Pasquale Rotter
Through representation, presence and absence, images define and reinforce how we see ourselves and others. The construction of a white, universally accepted, normality, and the simultaneous exclusion of the racialised body of color are also rooted in a media culture which celebrates a majority society perspective whilst overlooking and ignoring positions of color. Others are designated as alien and depicted either as exotic or stereotypes; they are caricatured, silenced, or simply remain absent. The place itself from which these labels and gaze emanates, from which this honouring or ignoring originates, remains unnamed. What then happens when the ruling normality is held before a mirror, when the gaze of the other is reversed? What becomes visible, when the exoticised gaze back?
“Making Mirrors: Of Body and Gaze” brings together artists who deal critically with dominant body images and ways of seeing. They reflect and deconstruct the white gaze, and contrast this with their own perspectives on and concepts of identity.
The exhibition brings together participatory approaches and interventions which move the experience of art beyond that of the white cube or pure observation and into everyday public space; and at times bringing it back into the gallery.