Bakary Cafe

The irony of going to see 11 and 12 at the Barbican Theatre on Friday night did not escape me.  Only the day before, a military coup in Niger (West Africa) saw the President deposed and the government dissolved.

11 and 12 is about a conflict which sees a country in West Africa divided by a conflict over whether aspecific prayer has to be recited 11 times or 12 times. This simple enough question leads to violence and deaths. Families are torn. The country, under French occupaton, is divided. This makes the role of the French easier.

The set is simple and functional. The plot is easy to follow. What makes this play work is the sheer power of the acting. The same actors make us reflect on the futility of conflict and how we see violence and tolerance. Yes, violence and intolerance are never far from the surface but if we took the time to talk and understand each other, imagine what we could achieve?

And how relevant is this in this current world of ours?

I came across this exhibition by chance. I’d never been to the Hoopers Gallery before and was given a warm welcome on arrival, which made up for the miserable drenching journey.

And to be honest, I’d never heard of Gina Glover either but the review of Liminal World I read caught my eye. “A gorgeous antidote to our fast-paced life” (copyright Steve Pill, Metro).

Glover uses a pinhole camera which requires long exposures and this gives her images a very distinct feel: the figures blur a little, colours blend together slightly. They look like images from dreams.

A simple object commanding the image such as Blue Bench or Yellow Hut. Or we’re faced with a landscape which draws you in and captures your imagination such as The High Road, Storm or France Profonde. Lovely stuff.

The exhibition continues downstairs with Pathways to Memory 1986-1999 but these works are different, more biographical. They’re good images, well taken and composed. Family members and familiar objects in her garden. Not for me I’m afraid. And I’m sorry I saw these last as it took away from my enjoyment of Liminal World.

Liminal World is on at the Hoopers Gallery until 5 March. FREE.

Well… there go my travel plans out of the window!

Deadly grenade attacks in Kigali are allegedly linked to next week’s visit from French President Sarkozy or the forthcoming August elections. As it is always best to avoid election times in Africa, I’m moving on to plan b… which is a great shame, as I’d started working on my itinerary and booked the time off work!

I was meant to see Lyle Lovett a little while ago but the gig was cancelled. I’ve been listening to a lot of country music recently so the timing of this concert was spot on (although Lovett covers many more genres than country ranging from country and folk to jazz and pop).It’s just as well that it was a show to listen to and that there were no visuals.

I have never, truly, been to a show where I was surrounded by so many giants (and I’m not small!). So when Lovett and Hiatt took it in turn to sing a song, the other one joining in, I made a point of reaching up just to see their faces before settling to staring at the jacket of the guy in front of me.

This didn’t matter too much, although I’ll now think twice about whether I want a standing or a seating ticket according to gig.

There was a lot of chit-chat between Lovett and Hiatt between songs, which gave the gig a very informal feel. These two guys could have been having a chat and playing a few songs on their porch, not in front of a very demanding audience: “play this song”; “stop chatting and get on with it”. Missing the point I felt. And then some guy asked a direct personal question, which was rightly averted.

True, it wasn’t one of those gigs where you were singing and dancing… but the quality of Lyle Lovett’s lyrics and his voice, combined with Hiatt’s music made it a winner.

Yep, another exhibition visited on its last day. Determined not to miss this one, I was there at opening time and I only had to share the exhibits with a handful of people, which was surprising and delightful.

The GSK Contemporary, Earth: Art of a Changing World exhibition was held in what I understand was the old Museum of Mankind. Located at the back of the Royal Academy of Arts, 6 Burlington Gardens, I felt, was a bit of an awkward space for contemporary art pieces.

Obviously, the main attraction there as far as I’m concerned was “Amazonian Field” (Antony Gormley). This was the third time I’ve come face to face with this work; I adore those terracotta figures. Packed together, they filled the room they were in, a few of them almost creeping out. Staring at you, it seems that there is a lot they want to tell you. Going down to their level (lying on the floor), you’re almost overwhelmed by their presence.

The overall theme of the exhibition linked art to climate change. Is art jumping on the climate change band-wagon I wondered? Can “Amazonian Field” for example be successfully linked to climate change now (the work was made in 1992 when climate change was definitely not in the news)? Gormley himself apparently was intrigued to see how the work could be reinterpreted. Is it valid for artists to have a voice and for their art to reflect their views? Is Art still Art if it has a ‘political’ point?

Some pieces, like”Kings of the Hill” (Yael Bartana) or “Heart of Darkness” (Cornelia Parker), do make you think of the (negative)  impact we have on the world. In the first one, men play with their big cars, wasting petrol and destroying the environment just for fun. In the second one, we see the remnants of a forest fire, a controlled burn which got out of control.

Other pieces were enjoyable just for being themselves and certainly did not make me think about the big issue. I particularly liked “It’s My Island I”: a video in which Finish artist Antti Laitinen builds his own island in the Baltic sea. I could have spent a lot of time staring at “Tide”(Darren Almond), a 567 digital clock display ticking away. And I still don’t know what to make of “100 Years” (Kris Martin). This small golden sphere is due to explode a 100 years from its creation (2004). Really? Why? How will we know if it did? Pointless? And then there was “Doomed” (Tracey Moffat), a video collage of movie disasters. This was supposed to explore our obsession with disasters… Chilling clips which made me drift away to think about the tsunami or the even more recent earthquake in Haiti. And if anything, it reaffirmed my belief that The Towering Inferno is still one of the best disaster films of all time.

GSK Contemporary, Earth: Art of a Changing World certainly raised some questions; but may be not the questions it was setting out to do.

The Sacred Made Real at the National Gallery was my first venture in an art gallery so far this year.

The reviews were alluring and tantalising. Referred to, simply, as the best exhibition of the year, when it opened in 2009. There was a lot to like… only a few pieces were shown in each room. Each piece therefore was given the space to breathe. Each piece important enough to command your undivided attention. The lighting low and subdued; encouraging the audience to whisper or remain silent. These are objects of devotion normally seen in churches and there was a reverential silence in each room.

In 17th-century Spain, religious art got the realism treatment… whether it was meant to shock, I’m not sure… but realism brought a much needed oomph to the Catholic Church. You were no longer just praying to an icon; you were face to face with a living person, whose very pain and sadness was there for you to see.

The austerity of the works in sharp contrast with some of the goriness on display. The severed ‘Head of Saint John the Baptist’ certainly proved a hit with a couple of children in the room at the same time as me; the blood on the severed neck hinting at the fresh decapitation. ‘Christ on the Cross (’Cristo de los Desamparados’)’ invites you to reflect on the pain which Christ suffered but if you have any doubts, his shadow on the wall will refute these as you see him pulling from the nails; his body slumped forward, helplessly.

The Culture Show’s review of this exhibition drew our attention to a couple of pieces, ‘The Virgin of Sorrows (Mater Dolorosa)’ and ‘Dead Christ’ and these were indeed fabulous in their realism… but ‘The Virgin of the Immaculate Conception’ was one of my favourite pieces. The detail of her drapery and her face meant that you had to look twice to reassure yourself that it was a statue you were looking at, not a real person. As for ‘Saint Francis Borgia’, I simply could not hold his gaze.

Yes, the standard of the works on show was extremely high… but this exhibition was a success because the curator got it spot on. They didn’t want you to simply visit this exhibition; they wanted you to experience it. Simply astounding.

Progress is slow… but any progress is good news. After the last twenty years, the recent news from Burma is offering a glimmer of hope: Aung San Suu Kyi could be free by the end of the year.

Interestingly, two of my acquaintances holidayed in Burma this Christmas (independently of each other). Well travelled, they both knew that their decision to visit Burma was controversial but both felt that the time was right. I’m still hanging on…