WHO: Sam Durant
WHAT: More Than 1/2 the World
WHERE: Sadie Coles, Davies Street
WHEN: 15 March – 13 April 2017
Theresa May has done it – she’s pulled the suicidal trigger that is Article 50. Brexit is no longer a political threat. Brexit has come to British shores, and is going to take British jobs. The process has begun. Welcome, to rainy fascism island.
There’s a new exhibition at Sadie Coles, titled More than ½ the world, it showcases a number of large scale light boxes with text that seems handwritten, like a hastily drawn tag. The text is taken from a variety of unnamed protests and commonplace political slogans. The slogans chosen read, “if you are not angry you are not paying attention”, and “forwards not backwards” and poignant for today, simply “stay”.
The artist Sam Durant came to much international attention recently, with an artwork called “End White Supremacy” that was originally hung when Obama was elected as president, and again for Trump. The ways in which this piece punctuated the political upheaval of the past decade in the United States is in many ways what is taking place with this exhibition.
This collection of artworks works as an archive, as a partial documentary and as activism. Yet, this series really grows by finding the poetry of protests, the utopian aspirations of its participant, balanced against the sheer political cruelty of today.
Much of the art made in the face of Trump, Brexit, or whatever other alt-right disaster has emerged, that the media has pointed to and celebrated has been too reactive, too shallow (please no more “Make Protest Art Great Again” headlines). Lacking a long and sustained engagement with issues of inequality and nationalism, these artists have focused on single figures, often really on simplistic artistic tropes and means. Critics need to do more to build a better canon of the art for our times.
Sam Durant’s borrowing of handwritten text touches on art history, referencing colour field abstraction with a committed political message, it’s archival but allows itself to have attitude – and most importantly, looks beyond the key figures of the everyday news cycle, delving deep into history, seeking the grassroots where solidarity is built.
Chris Hayes 