Exhbtions I've Seen
Late Tate
First I attended a group called Black Girl Knit club. This is an organisation with the aim of bringing Black women together to empower, learn and create a community.
I attended this event with my friend Monika who is a person of colour. As I entered the space I felt very aware of my whiteness. I was conscious that I could be taking a space from a black women who the space was designed for. As the space had 13 people per hour. The event ran for serval hours over the course of the night. But I was very aware I was occupying space that wasn’t designed for me.
The Knit group was an incredible place, a space where women sat, shared and communicated. This moment felt precious and I love the environment they had fostered. Should I have attended this event? I went with a friend, who otherwise might not have gone, I know they got alot from the event and enjoyed the experience and space. Monika commented at the start of the event, ‘don’t worry everyone I have my token white friend’ I believe to make my whiteness less problematic within this space.
Alice Neel
Walking up the stairs to the exhibition I felt excitement and pain, as my new docs ripped into the back of my heels tearing away at my skin. The show started with Neel’s nude self-portrait, painted when she was 80. The room was dimly lit, the painting lit with lights close to the frame, resulting in it looking like a hologram. A bazar futuristic twist, Neel communicating from the grave, in a digital representation.
Only when I got closer could I see the materiality of the paint on canvas, the greens in her flesh and the twist in her ankle. However, don’t get to close to the work, the slightest foot or arm over the invisible laser beams results in an alarm sounding. Striking fear into the viewer and the fellow exhibition visitors.
The show brought together works from her 60 year career, moving chronologically from the start of her practice to her more ionic realised recognisable style.
The downstairs space, highlighted her later works from the 1960s and 70s.
