On the 6th September 2015 I took a trip to the Southbank Centre to view an exhibition surrounding the migration of people to Britain over the past 70 years.
The displays featuring statistics, stories of success and loss, pictures, artifacts and interactive elements to engage the audience were visually simulating and allowed me to absorb the meanings portrayed throughout.
The installation piece featured in the images below was one that particularly captured my interest as it replicated a household of migrant families with African origins. The bright colours worn by the people in the pictures, as well as the patterns featured on the sample wedding dress caught my attention as they reminded me vividly of my trip to Uganda over the summer. The bold clashes of colours were startlingly unique and I was able to understand that a simple garment or fabric can hold huge amounts of cultural and semantic meaning.
There is constantly the question being raised about what makes us British, and the questionnaire seen above contained a series of questions that have been featured on past migration forms. The ridiculous list of questions contained those I didn't even know the answer to as a person living and growing up in the UK my entire life. Particularly, with the recent migrant crisis I have found my self being more open to the idea of foreigners taking refuge and jobs in this country as I feel that one of the proudest values you can hold as a Britain is to be accepting of others. Indeed, it is the multitude of ethnicities in this country that makes it so unique.
It was these forms of audience participation throughout the exhibition that really stood out and helped make it enjoyable for those involved. One of my favourite things to do was read the responses from other visitors on a series of tags that required respondents to write 5 things they thought were necessary to bring to the UK when moving here.
A personal favourite of mine was one that saw humour in the situation and suggested a bucket hat, love of deep house, at least 3 vinyls, fake Huf socks and every copy of Vice mag.
The display below not only contains a pair of mind blowing facts, but also two illustrations of Holocaust survivors by young artist and undergraduate Gideon Summerfield. His pair of illustrations that were placed in this exhibition form part of a larger project in which he interviewed and drew the survivors with their children, named The Legacy of Survival.
Above are a selection of Summerfield's works created by printing. These stood out for me because of the blocks of soft colours created using post-editing on photoshop, as well as the photographic elements that add a modern twist to the delicate sketches. The simpler lines incorporated into a drawing with such complex shading and attention to detail fascinated me so I transcribed my favourite piece - Rachael Levy and her daughter Shelley. I found the sketchy technique used to recreate the papery skin of the elders very effective and aimed to recreate it using a pencil. I used a mixture of 2B and H pencils to replicate the soft lines of the skin and the harsher ones around the edges and to emphasise the deeper creases. As i am normally more controlled when it comes to drawing, I was pleasantly surprised with the ease of the more scribbly style and will not hesitate to incorporate this into future works. Studying Summerfield's artwork has also encouraged me to incorporate more than one technique into my art and also take up printing as a possible media to use for the future, particularly as I haven't used it before. After looking at Summerfield's website, I was encouraged to spend time making an online portfolio that displays my work from AS level which can be found here. Although it is simple and i ideally don't want my portfolio to be presented on a Tumblr blog but under my own domain, it's a start.
This exhibition overall enlightened me to what a diverse amount of presentation methods can be put into one space and bring something such as migration that if often seen as mundane, to life. It wasn't overpowering, but it was displayed in such a manner that the viewer was constantly captivated and interested. The statistical information presented through unconventional methods such as graphics made taking in information much easier and this along with the methods of artwork I witnessed, opened my mind to what makes an exhibition tick. Most importantly though, it opened my mind to the current migration crisis and the stance I will take on the matter as well as the struggles faced by those in the past.
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