- Contributed'Weapon' -- welded steel, by Denise Forbes.
Sana Rose, Contributor
THE theatrical stance of Denise Forbes's skeletal figures, the ambiguous relationship between space and form in Tafui's sculptures and paintings and Andrew Smith's photographic essay of young children contending with, and affected by, the lack of water resources, all converged in the public space of The Mutual Gallery on January 29. The exhibition is intended to travel to other venues later.
The three artists present their private thoughts consisting of social, cultural and personal visions which manifest themselves in different approaches to material and form with overlapping elements of light & line. The exhibition tends to be mostly black, white and grey with touches of colour introduced by Tafui's paintings and Forbes' installation and sole life-size sculpture. Happily, one of the best things about this exhibition is the fact that one was able to see a wider range of work produced by each artist as is not the case with large group shows where artists are represented with one or two works.
Of the three artists, Andrew Smith is the most conservative. Together, his photographs create a commentary on communities with water woes by juxtaposing persons from these communities -- mainly children carrying water buckets in tattered clothing -- with scenic landscapes of Jamaica's abundance of water, a natural resource of our island.
Separately, the stronger of two subjects of Andrew's photographs are the peopled images that told a clearer story whereas the landscape images are just that -- pictures of waterfalls, seas and mountains covered with trees. Andrew's style of photography is that of the documentary kind that seeks to present the image as it is without any kind of physical manipulations or distortions of the image. However, Andrew is hardly adventurous in the scale of his images or in his compositions, which makes little use of tension and contrast, which would add drama to his images and poignancy to his story/idea. Of his 12 photographs, 'We Want Water' is the most successfully composed image where light, dark and the intriguing glare in the eyes of the young subject, the graffiti on the water tank and the allusions to transportation in the community, create a unified whole and an interesting part of the story.
Denise Forbes, the most well-known of the three artists, works mostly in welded steel creating exaggerated linear figures, probably influenced by her interest in theatre design. The lines of Forbes's figures jut out aggressively into space, weaving tales of religion, personal psychological struggle and socio-cultural commentaries. Her life-sized sculpture 'Glamour Puss' in thick, hard metal, demonstrates the superficial beauty of a woman fully made up with red painted nails, red lipstick, topped off with flowing hair. The woman's breasts, highlighted with warm red bulbs appear as neon danger signs while a strategically positioned light on the floor gives a spotlight between her wide stride, hinting at sex as a tool and perhaps, as a weapon.
Forbes's other sculptures, although much smaller than 'Glamour Puss', are equally dramatic in their stances and strides, some of which appear to take flight into space being propelled by harsh lines and acute angles. This drama is somewhat weakened however, by some of the flat wide bases which Forbes uses to anchor her figures. These bases create unrelated formal and thematic element in the sculptures to which they are attached. The most successful bases are those which became part of the works as they are constructed with thinner pieces of wire or metal such as those in 'Weapon' and 'Kangaroo Court'. Forbes also needs to rethink the fusing of two different colours or tones sprayed on to her pieces which meet and blend unconvincingly in pieces such as 'Walking Away' and 'Fire for the Prophet'.
Suspension of forms in space is seen in Forbes's pieces seeming to take flight metaphorically and literally. Her installation, 'Damaged Goods: Respectable Killing' makes use of both while at the same time it speaks of a hanging of a person with the looming dark form over a bloody spiral dotted with broken ceramic pieces. The piece speaks of the experience of Afghan women whose lives are expendable by the men in their society.
Tafui demonstrates her skill and interest in both painting and sculpture which are equally ambiguous in form and space. Her sculptures play with perceptions of the solidity and opacity of form with the use of heated and moulded acrylic (Plexiglas) which becomes both transparent and translucent under the heat. They create a "now you see me, now you don't" feel. Add light to this, and you have functional sculpture as in the piece, 'Sting Ray'.
Another play on form and space is seen in Tafui's installation, 'Descending Ascension' which uses paper - a flat material - cut into pieces and placed one on top of the other to create form and suspended in space. Tafui seems to want to create a further play on form with the shadow of the installation on the wall but fails to harness this idea. Together the floating pieces of paper however, echo the circular ceiling cut-out from which they are suspended creating the same circular form without being totally solid, offering a more successful aspect of the idea.
Tafui's paintings also utilise the ambiguity of space in the flat bands of colour interrupted by line drawings, which appear to be semi-abstract renditions of human forms. Her most successful paintings are 'Mixed Feelings' and 'The Great Cover Up' which harness the most successful balance of her mixed media technique. In this piece however, the left panel could stand on its own, leaving the other two panels to form a diptych. She now has to further explore her materials and techniques to push the limits of the paradoxes created between space and form, as this is a sound foundation on which to build.
As a whole, the exhibition has material and formal links between the three artists although each of them had different conceptual points of entry. It is perhaps the mounting of the show, which defied this unity. Brian Heap, staff tutor in Drama at the Sir Phillip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts and guest speaker for the opening night, remarked that the exhibition is "political with a small p" with strong use of metaphor, harnessing technology showing artists struggling to bring about change or at least jolt people into reality".
From a conceptual point of view, the artists delved into their private mental spaces, developed their ideas in their private creative processes and presented their results for public scrutiny. Mr. Heap told the audience of the evening that "the burden has now been shifted to you, the public who has to do the work", to assess the artists' success. Mr. Heap went on further to say that in terms of progress and planning, "artists don't factor into the development of our country. We are an unnecessary luxury". But while the country's decision-makers continue to ignore art, these young artists show their relevance as parts of the society and strive to continue and add to the legacy of Jamaican art, while defying the odds against them.
It is certainly refreshing and encouraging to see another group of young artists take this stand. The public is invited to share and scrutinise Forbes's, Tafui's and Smith's private thoughts until February 16.
