Review of "Whose Map is it?" now on at Iniva in London

Whose Map is it? is the latest show to open at Iniva. Kicking off with a symposium on 2 June with delegates from around the world, this show is incredibly relevant on so many levels. Nine contemporary international artists question the underlying structures and hierarchies that inform traditional mapmaking. They provide individual insights that inscribe new, often omitted perspectives onto the map.

Maps are the visual manifestation of the social, economic and political stratification of the world. We look at certain areas and countries, and identities emerge, from money & power to oil & war. Granted these are surface judgements and stereotypes, which are often based on media representation, and although there may be some truth, the map plays a crucial role in creating these definitions. Maps and geographic locations in the broadest context underpin our worldviews. It’s not only about the physical location, but also the concept of nationhood and identity construction.



The show includes film, installation, print and audio, which are used to challenge the authority of the map and explore wider social and political issues. Whose Map is it? includes three new commissions by Gayle Chong Kwan, Susan Stockwell and Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa, alongside recent work by Milena Bonilla, Alexandra Handal, Bouchra Khalili, Otobong Nkanga, Esther Polak and Oraib Toukan.

For centuries artists have been drawn to the subject of maps to examine self- positioning and global geographies. The artists in Whose Map is it? continue this process by challenging the objective nature of the map. The exhibition opens a dialogue about contemporary experiences of space, and the meaning of the map today. Everyone has an experience, a journey and a story to tell.



Maps are part of debates around subjects such as resources, territoriality, identity and migration. Globalisation has changed how we see the world and the two dimensional map no longer represents the rapidly changing trans-national, multi-authored world that we live in. Our ideas of the map have also changed as a result of increasing access to GIS (Geographical Information System) and new technologies such as GPS (Global Positioning System).

Whose Map is it? combines a complex understanding of maps and how geography influences our lives. Can we re-define the map or will it always define us? Whose Map is it? examines this question in great detail.

With the installation, film, sculpture, print and audio on view, this show provides an immersive experience, and ultimately makes you think about your own place in the world, the perfect mix of universal and individual.

The show continues until 24 July at Rivington Place, London, EC2A 3BA. Free entry. www.iniva.org

Exhibiting artists’ work and biographies:

Milena Bonilla shows Variations on a homogeneous landscape (2006), this series of 27 posters depicts a dislocated map of America, questioning scientific means of cartography and its relation to landscape and history. Milena Bonilla was born in 1975 in Bogotá, Colombia and lives and works in Amsterdam, Netherlands. She is currently artist in residence at Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. In 2008 she held a solo-exhibition at Valenzuela Klenner Gallery in Bogotá. Recent group exhibitions include X Havana Biennial, Havana (2009), BB3 Bucharest Biennial at Simeza in Bucharest and Umea in Sweden (2008), and Once More With Feeling: A Season of Colombian Photography at the Photographers’ Gallery, London (2008).

Gayle Chong Kwan presents Save the Last Dance for Me, the work consists of a large-scale map illustrating Laban notation techniques to record the movement and migration of a culturally specific dance, accompanied by a sound piece giving gallery visitors dance instructions. Gayle Chong Kwan was born in 1973 in Edinburgh, UK and lives and works in London, UK. Her recent solo-exhibitions include Terroir and the Pathetic Fallacy, ArtSway (2009); The Land of Peach Blossom, Graves Gallery, Sheffield (2008); Memoryscape Moravia (2009); Cockaigne and Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Platform for Art (2006-8). Group exhibitions include Pot Luck, Art Circuit (touring exhibition), New Art Gallery Walsall, UK (2008-9) and Tales of the New World, Havana Biennial (2009).

Alexandra Handal’s Labyrinth of Remains and Migration (2000/01) is a series of mental maps charting spaces of obliteration, dispossession, memory and destruction in Palestine. Alexandra Handal was born in 1975 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and lives and works in London, UK and Jerusalem, Israel. Her recent exhibitions include: New Contemporaries, A Foundation, London and Cornerhouse Manchester UK (2009); Akhir al Layl/At the end of the night, Art Dubai 2009. Solo exhibitions include Alexandra Handal, Recent Work, International Center of Bethlehem, Al-Kahf Gallery, Bethlehem, Palestine (2004). She is currently completing a PhD in Fine Art (Practice & Theory) at Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, UK.

Bouchra Khalili shows the film series Mapping Journey #1, #2, #3 (2008/09) aiming to reveal the underground and hidden maps of displacement that migratory experience produces. Bouchra Khalili was born in 1975 in Casablanca, Morocco and lives and works in Paris, France. Her recent solo-exhibitions include Storytellers, galerieofmarseille, Marseille (2008); Focus on Bouchra Khalili, Museum of Modern Art, Salvador do Bahia, Brazil (2007); Méditerranée, Méditerranées, Caixa Forum of Art, Barcelona (2006). Group exhibitions include Tarjama/Translation., Queens Museum of Art, New York (2009); El Sur de Nuevo Reina Sofia National Museum, Madrid (2009), Middle East Channel: Résistance(s) I & II, and The Third Guangzhou Triennial, Guangzhou, China (2008). In 2010 Bouchra received the CulturesFrance Hors les Murs Award.

Otobong Nkanga includes Delta Stories (2005/06) which is a series of 18 drawings, narrating ecological, political and social transformation in the oil rich Delta region in Nigeria. Otobong Nkanga was born in 1974 in Kano, Nigeria and lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium and Paris, France. She has exhibited widely internationally. Recent shows include: Animism, Extra City Kunsthal and MuHKA Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp (2010); Flow, Studio Museum Harlem, New York (2008); Africa Remix (touring exhibition), Hayward Gallery, London (2005); Snap judgments: New Positions in African Contemporary Photography, touring exhibition New York (2006). In the last five years, she participated in the Sharjah, Taipei, Dakar, São Paulo and Havana Biennials.

Esther Polak’s NomadicMILK (2009) follows dairy transporters and Fulani nomadic herdsmen in Nigeria, mapping both their routes with GPS to visualize the variety and economics of dairy transportation that take place throughout Nigeria. Esther Polak was born in 1962 in Amsterdam, Netherlands and lives and works there. She is a pioneer within the field of locative media art. Recent exhibitions of NomadicMILK include Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria (2009), Transmediale, Berlin (2009). Other exhibitions include Spiral Drawing Sunrise Medialab, Prado, Madrid (2008), Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria (2005), Making Things Public, ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany (2005) and AmsterdamREALTIME-diary in traces, Municipal Arvive, Amserdam (2002).

Susan Stockwell’s work is concerned with issues of ecology, beauty, mapping, colonial histories, trade and global commerce. For Whose Map is it? Stockwell was commissioned to produce the site-specific window piece Red Road Arteries (2010). Susan Stockwell was born in Manchester and lives and works in London, UK. She has exhibited at The National Museum of China, Beijing and The Katonah Museum of Art, USA. She will be part of the group shows Quilts from 1700 to the Present Day, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2010), and The Creative Compass, The Royal Geographical Society Gallery, London (2010)

Oraib Toukan presents The New(er) Middle East (2007), an interactive puzzle in the shape of a territorial map of the Middle East, humorously playing on the so-called ‘New Middle East Map’ suggested by an US Army Lieutenant. Oraib Toukan was born 1977 in Boston, USA and lives and works in Amman, Jordan and New York, USA. Her recent shows include Istanbul Biennial (2009), Talking Heads, IMOCA, Dublin (2010) and Counting Memories, Darat Al Funun Amman (2007). In 2009 she was international resident artist at Delfina Foundation, London and at Artist Alliance, New York.

Emma Wolukau–Wanambwa’s new commission includes charts that juxtapose British narratives of exploration and conquest with touchstones, landmarks, peaks and triumphs of British bourgeois life. Emma Wolukau–Wanambwa was born 1976 in Glasgow, and lives and works in London, UK. Currently Emma is participating in the LUX Artists Associate Programme, London. Recent solo-shows include A Brush for Robben Island, Butcher's Projects at Rokeby Gallery, London, UK (2008). She participated in selected exhibitions and screenings including Complex Financial Instruments, S1 Artspace, Sheffield (2009); Wo ist Jetzt?/ Where is Now?, Würtembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany (2008); and Bang Hwang Ha Num Byul/ Wandering Star: British-Korean Landscape, Gana Art Gallery, Seoul, Korea (2008).

Images

Susan Stockwell, River of Blood 2010
Vinyl cut-out, 3.73 x 8.5m
Copyright the artist. Photo: Theirry Bal

Milena Bonilla, Variations on a homogenous landscape (detail) 2006
Series of 27 posters, each 21.5 x 28cm
Photograph courtesy of the artist

Bouchra Khalili, Mapping Journey #1 (film still) 2008
Video. Courtesy of galerieofmarseille. Produced with the support of Artschool Palestine. Copyright the artist

Arthouse French film, Father of My Children, out on DVD later this month

Father of My Children (Le Pere De Mes Enfants), written and directed by Mia Hanson-Love, communicates an outstanding portrayal of family drama based on the life story of troubled film producer Humbert Balsan, who committed suicide in 2005. Set in Paris, the film follows Gregoire Canvel (played by Louis-Do de Lencquesaing), who seems to have it all; he is a successful film producer, with a loving wife and three precious children.

However, it transpires that what seems to be so picture-perfect is, in reality, far from perfect. Gregoire’s film company is spiralling into debt due to too many projects and too many risks. In a tragic twist, in an act of utter despair, Gregoire commits suicide, leaving his family behind with the company that led him to his demise, along with many unanswered questions. In an attempt to retain the hopes and aspirations of her husband, Gregoire’s wife, Sylvia (played by Chiara Caselli) tries to secure funds to see out the unfinished projects of her husband. However, after relentless efforts, she is forced to admit defeat when the company goes into liquidation. The family decide to leave Paris, a place that has left them with loss and solemn memories.

The title, Father of My Children, focuses the message of the film, namely, that the family is of the utmost importance while careers and professional success are trivial by comparison. It appears at the outset that Gregoire, who seems so self-assured and rational, would be able to perceive this. But apparently not, it is brought to our attention that men view their careers as essential to their identity, as something which validates them. Hanson-Love therefore creates the possibility that Canvel is selfish by nature and motivated by money and success, not what is actually central to life; family. However, Gregoire’s thoughts are left ambiguous and, as viewers, we can only speculate his true intentions.

The film will be released on DVD on the 21st June 2010. Having won the Un Certain Regard Prize at Cannes Film Festival and being described by Time Out as “honest, heartbreaking, astonishingly assured”, Father of My Children is one to watch. Distriobuted by Artificial Eye.

Reviewed by Samantha Choma

Art Reviews: New Books for Your Coffee Table

We receive some fantastic art books through our doors at Aesthetica and we thought we'd share our views on some of the recent publications that have passed our way.



We Are Congo
Rankin/Oxfam
Oxfam

Rankin (b. 1966) is one of Aesthetica’s favourite photographers and so we were delighted to receive his new book, We Are Congo, made in collaboration with Oxfam. Rankin is famous for his omnipresent work in the fashion world but this collection of work pursues a different theme and gives a new insight into a photographer most renowned for his iconic images of celebrities such as Kate Moss and Madonna. We’ve covered other ways in which Rankin has subverted the fashion photography world in Aesthetica before and you can read about his other projects by clicking here.

The photographs presented in We Are Congo are all inspired by, and taken during Rankin’s recent Oxfam trips to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The book is divided into four sections. The first is a collection of images each accompanied by a touching love story. Amongst these is 51 year old Charles, a retired dancer who describes how the violence and disruption in the Congo has affected the life he had hoped to live with his beloved wife. The stories are both heart wrenching and hopeful. In the accompanying photographs the personalities of the subjects shine through in their expressions. They evoke the feeling of warmth, love and hope; things that even war cannot seize from humanity.

The second section is made up of images taken by the people of Sange themselves. Whilst in the Congo, Rankin held photographic workshops to teach the local community about photography. In this set of photographs the Congolese people take on the role of both photographer and subject. Their images of teenagers playing football, mothers feeding their babies and grinning school boys create an intimate depiction of lives lived with love, in spite of difficulty and anguish.

Set against a white background, the subjects of the photographs in the third section depict those people who fled conflict to find refuge in Mugunga Camp. Similarly to the 32 page panoramic portrait in the final section of We Are Congo, Rankin captures snap shots of the Congolese people displaying their bravery and determination in their search for peace.

In We Are Congo the photographs displayed do not depict victims of war and horror but rather people who are full of dreams and hopes. Rankin’s photographs capture the extraordinary lives of ordinary people. Filled with photographs expressing deep love and determination, the pages of We Are Congo let us know that there is the chance of a better future for the Congolese people.

All proceeds from sales of the book will be spent on Oxfam’s emergency work in the DRC.

Ruth Sweeney




For Love and Money: New Illustration
Liz Farrelly and Olivia Triggs
Laurence King Publishing


Today visual stimulation takes on many forms and in today’s society illustration can be seen in all mediums, most noticeably for commercial, environmental and political use. Illustration has come a long way from simple drawings and has developed to cover every aspect of our lives, from 2D to 3D, from glossy magazines to advertising campaigns, from fashion to the blockbuster cinema and even to our mobile phones. The ever-growing interest in illustration by all areas of the media demonstrates the power it has in influencing our present society.

This book aims to display illustration artwork at its very best and highlight the diversity of which the genre can achieve. Never before has one genre covered such a range, from its combinations of drawings, painting and collage, to computer manipulation with digital software, photography and text, thus demonstrating there are no boundaries when it comes to this area of art. The book showcases 89 different innovative young individual’s portfolios, referencing spectacular images alongside mini question and answer features with the artist. It offers a small preview into the work of each artist, taking you on a journey into his or her created world. However, this only lasts for a few pages before you’re being thrown towards the next artist.

An aesthetically pleasing journey with beautiful images, which give you an insight into the mind of the creator, it is a wonderful reference book for any established or aspiring illustrator and is also able to capture the imagination of enthusiasts.

For Love and Money: New Illustration is an astounding collection of bright colours, bold prints, quirky photography, intricate patterns and some of the most amazing visual images I have seen in a while. It is truly inspiring and a must-have for anyone with any interest in illustration.

Lisa-Marie Ryan




Bridget Riley – Retrospective: Musée d’Art moderne de la vile de Paris
Ridinghouse

Bridget Riley (b.1931) is a well known for her paintings of optical illusions created from geometric shapes, and bold colours. She is widely recognised in Britain and the USA today but her influence in France is less established. Yet, it is from the Bridget Riley – Retrospective at Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris in 2008 that this latest catalogue of her work is derived. Between 12 June and 14 September 2008, the gallery was given the opportunity to take a fresh look at the artist and her work, and to display a collection of paintings and preparatory studies not yet seen together by the public.

This heavy volume contains a foreword by the curator, Fabrice Hergott, and several commentaries upon the artist by different writers, which are written in French and English. The book makes a fascinating reading experience, as many of the accounts explore Riley’s artistic progress and her place in the art world today. Her first paintings portray influences from the Impressionist Seurat, and her later development towards the style of Matisse. An interview with the artist by Lynne Cooke reveals interesting details about her working processes and the concepts behind her paintings. A catalogue of the Riley’s paintings is reproduced in high quality colour, and includes images of her preparatory studies which reveal the evolution from her initial ideas to the finished work.

Whether you’re interested in looking at the mind bending optical illusions of the paintings, or want a more detailed retrospective on the artist herself, this catalogue from Ridinghouse allows you to dip into different ideas and opinions on this great modern artist.

Rachael Boon