Review: Newspeak

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‘It’s just filled with tat.’ That was my friend's summary of a visit to the Saatchi Gallery.

After going to Newspeak I can see what he means. I wouldn't call it 'tat' though, maybe bric-a- brac, pick 'n' mix? But that’s not a bad thing. Charles Derwent in The Independent, describes Newspeak as ‘the content of someone’s attic’. Defined simply as ‘British Art Now’, even with a guidebook its difficult to trace any universal themes that appear in work from artists including Hurvin Anderson, Scott King, Phoebe Unwin and Fergal Stapleton.

So is there such thing that characterises British art now? If there is, I didn't find it here. Nevertheless, the exhibition successfully showcased the individual talents of its unknown artists.

Hurvin Anderson

Something familiar yet detached

Peter's Sitters 3

Born to Jamaican parents in Birmingham, Anderson takes us back to memories of 1950s Britain through the eyes of immigrants, with hazy meditative pieces like Peter’s Sitters 3 and Untitled (Beach Shore). In Peter’s Sitter 3, a customer is depicted, hunched in the barber’s chair. A contrast is created between the spaciousness of the barber room in which he is seated, reminiscent of a natural landscape, with its deep blues, and his reflective self, lost in interiority and trapped in memory. This can also be traced in the brushwork used to create the piece; at some points it is fluid and vague, suggestive of memories distorted by imagination but it is also used to construct the tight geometric pattern of the customer’s gown.

Anderson explores the psychological state of the immigrant or post colonial subject, new to Britain yet trying to find vestiges of the dream they had of the ‘motherland’ Britain when they were in their original homes. In Anderson’s work the familiar seems surreal, dreamlike and detached, evoking Sigmund Freud’s ideas on the ‘the uncanny’, where the uncanny is produced by something that seems familiar yet simultaneously alien.

Untitled (Beach Shore)

In Untitled (Beach Shore) this uncanny feeling is effectively created through a hazy, eerie landscape, which is actually a suburban street. Shades of black are layered onto each other creating depth and an almost foggy, misty atmosphere, where trees and civilisation are hard to discern. The only things that are really finite are the angular lines of the fence, providing some certainty and structure to the piece.

Scott King

Turning CHE into CHER

Pink Cher

King subverts Jim Fitzpatrick’s ubiquitous print of Che Guevara, supplementing another revolutionary, the gay icon Cher. However, this is not a radical piece. If anything it says a lot about consumerism today, where the meaning of Guevara’s original picture has been lost behind the endless mass replication of his image onto wallets (which I sadly owned), shotglasses (these too), t-shirts (got this too), stickers, bed spreads to name but a few. King’s Pink Cher is like a mutated Frankenstein of Che, with her large image towering majestically in the gallery much like a Communist leader, except this times she's flanked with nauseating pink, rather than the working masses.

Matthew Darbyshire

Turning religion into a commodity

Untitled Shelves No.5

Darbyshire pokes fun at the world of interior decorating through his piece Untitled Shelves. On these shelves we find all sorts of ornamental type objects, but also a Buddha figure and Christ figure, all glossed with CMYK colour schemes. The harsh fluorescent coatings on religious emblems turns these revered, spiritual emblems into exchangeable commodities, undermining the sacredness of religion. Darbyshire says ‘We are what we buy and we use our belongings to project a desired image of ourselves.’

John Wynne

Restless urban landscape

Untitled

One of the highlights of the exhibition has to be John Wynne’s, Untitled, composed of 300 speakers. There’s a definitely build up to it as you make your way to the final gallery, with the sounds of the speakers beckoning you along the exhibition. Using 300 speakers, a pianola, a vacuum cleaner as well as a hard disc recorder, an aural and visual towering city landscape is constructed by these speakers. The combination of both sight and sound results in an eerie, imposing landscape and soundscape that dwarfs you as enter the gallery. As you weave in and out of the speakers, you get a real sense of a restless urban landscape, which possesses a frenetic kind of energy. The speakers seem mobile and ready to escape, like denizens of a city or the many parasites that live amongst them.

Part One of Newspeak: British Art Now runs until 17th October 2010 at the Saatchi Gallery.

Review: Pressure

British cinema’s forgotten gem sheds light on London’s murky past... and present

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One of the biggest travesties in British cinema is the lack of attention given to Horace Ové’s film Pressure, the first Black British film in history. Exploring the plight of Caribbean people in British society and their conflict with the police, the film is as pertinent now as ever before.

Set in Ladbroke Grove, West London, our unlucky protagonist Tony (Herbert Norville) attempts to find his way in life, struggling between different cultures that are at odds with each other.

You really feel his sense of disillusion at London, as white employers reject him again and again because of the colour of his skin, and his passive acceptance when he is thrown out of his friend’s house by her landlady is heartbreaking to watch.

For those familiar with the experience of London by black and ethnic minorities in the past, Tony’s experience comes as no surprise, but for many, the rampant racism and xenophobic atmosphere of 1970s London is a surprise. Written by Horace Ove and Sam Selvon, author of the The Lonely Londoners, the film really evokes the experiences of Selvon’s characters through fresh faced Tony and his band of thieving friends.

}For many, the rampant racism and xenophobic atmosphere of 1970s London is a surprise~

The film succeeds in being educative without being too subjective. When Tony witnesses a peaceful Black Power meeting being violently raided by the police, his political awakening begins. However, the motives and intentions of many in the movement, who resort to anti-white rhetoric, are critiqued, as well as the actions of the police.

After watching the film, I was surprised to discover that it was very controversial when it was first released. There’s not much swearing, not much violence and only a little peek of a penis. However, at the time it was banned for the way it depicted the police. Yet now, 30 years on, when institutions have less authority to commit such flagrant acts of censorship, Pressure still seems to be contentious. The fact that it still hasn’t been shown on television shows that the issues of institutional racism and police brutality back then are still thorny issues today, especially in the light of events like the Stephen Lawrence enquiry or the death of Ian Tomlinson.

Shot using many non-professional actors found on the streets of London, the film has a documentary feel to it, using natural sounds in many scenes to truly capture the 1970s metropolis. However, these realistic elements are interspersed with moments of surrealism, like Tony’s violent and erotic dream, which provide an artistic element to the urban landscape, making it alternate between being a place of possibility as well as hostility. This mix of contrasting elements shows the influence of Italian films on Ové, who is a renowned photographer as well as film director.

The fact that Pressure is still being denied the attention it deserves suggests that despite its multicultural, inclusive veneer, aspects of London are still the same as they were 30 years ago.

Who is Horace Ové?

* Born in 1939 in Trinidad

* Holds the Guinesss World Record for the first Black British film-maker to direct a feature-length film

* Broke into film as a slave extra in Joseph L.Mankiewicz’s 1963 epic Cleopatra

* Playing Away (1987) is probably his best known piece. Set in a fictitious location called d Sneddington, the comedy depicts a West Indian heritage cricket team from Brixtion arriving for a charity game

- * Ové’s influences include Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael, African-American political leaders of the 1960s and 1970s, but he is critical of contemporary black British politics

Review: The Comedy of Errors

Double trouble at the Globe

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Having chosen to do the Shakespeare module at university rather than opt for what others saw as more exciting choices, i.e contemporary Literature, I can conclude that unlike some of my friends, years of being smothered by Shakespeare at school and university have still left me with love for the Bard. However, I had only seen Shakespeare theatre productions after studying them scrupulously at school or university, analysing certain words, plucking out underlying themes and commenting on rhyme schemes. The Comedy of Errors at the Globe Theatre was the first production I saw where I had no prior knowledge of its plot. And this scared me.

I feared I wouldn’t understand the language and then I would lose track of the plot, proving that I was too stupid for Shakespeare. Thankfully, this didn’t happen. Not knowing the plot meant I was genuinely intrigued about how the comic tangles would be resolved.

}The strength of this production lies in its magnification of the confusion found in the play~

It’s a complicated yet comic play, with mistaken identity, slapstick chaos and confusion driving the plot. In a nutshell, there are two sets of twins, Antipholus of Ephesus and Antipholus of Syracuse (Shakespeare really does not make it easy for the audience) along with their slaves, Dromio of Ephesus and Dromio of Syracuse. Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus get separated from their twins at birth. Years later, Antipholus and Dromio of Syracus go to Ephesus in search of their brothers. With the two sets of twins now both in the same town, a series of mistaken identity episodes ensue with both Antipholus’ getting confused with their slaves and mistresses getting raunchy with the wrong lovers. To make things even more complicated, this production uses one actor to play each set of twins, with both Antipholus’ played by Tom Mothersdale and both Dromios played by Fergal McElherron.

Despite the propensity for the audience to be completely baffled by the constant cases of mistaken identity on stage, it doesn’t matter. The strength of this production lies in its magnification of the confusion found in the play. At one point, it becomes metatheatrical, with the actor playing Antipholus of Syracuse, Tom Mothersdale, seeming to forget to don his Antipholus of Ephesus prop when changing roles, much to the audience’s amusement.

Although the production concentrates more on the slapstick comedy elements than Shakespeare’s witty wordplay, this doesn’t diminish its comic effect on a modern day audience, producing rapturous roars of laughter, from the young and old. For me, The Comedy of Errors was a reminder that although we have been programmed to associate Shakespeare with English exams and coursework, he wrote his plays primarily to entertain.

* The Comedy of Errors is Shakespeare’s shortest play and it is one of his earlier works

* It is set in Ephesus, present-day Turkey, which was a leading trade centre in ancient times

* Shakespeare drew on a mixture of sources for The Comedy of Errors- Plautus, Menaechmi and Apollonius of Tyre

Review: The Secret in Their Eyes

Juan Jose Campanella's Oscar winning film flounders in its final scenes

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As highlighted by Sight and Sound in their September issue, South American cinema has been riding high in the last decade, with the surprise Oscar success of Argentinian film The Secret in Their Eyes for Best Foreign Language film proving its recognition by Hollywood as a formidable force in foreign cinema.

Directed by Juan Jose Campanella, the film flits back and forth, from the present (1999) to flashbacks of the past (1974) as Benjamin Esposito (Ricardo Darin), a retired federal justice officer, attempts to resolve emotional and work baggage that has been haunting him for decades. The beginning of the film shows him grappling with his novel, its opening scene recounting a young man’s last morning with his beloved wife before she is brutally raped and murdered. It is later that we find out that this murder isn’t fictional, it’s real. Yet 20 years later, its lack of closure is troubling Esposito.

Our protagonist then embarks on a journey, reopening cases and re-encountering his former superior, Irene, (Soledad Villamil) in an attempt to find out what happened to the young woman’s killer. Yet in doing so he opens up his own past and his love for Irene which has never faltered over the years, despite her marriage to another man.

Back to the crime thriller part of the plot. We revisit 1974, where Irene, Esposito and his comic colleague, the aging incompetent alcoholic Pablo Sandoval worked on the case of Liliana Colotto who had just married Ricardo Morales (Pablo Rago), and was found raped and murdered in her home. Suspicion fell on Gomez (Javier Godino) a puny nobody who harboured an infatuation with Colotto. The unlikely Starsky and Hutchesque duo eventually managed to catch Gomez, culminating in a tense chase during a football match, with Gomez darting in and out of the camera shot as he attempted to make a getaway.

However, the real ‘thriller’ part of the film occurs twenty years later as Esposito attempts to work out what happened to Gomez after he was released from prison. Just as we are led to expect a certain conclusion to this tale, a marvellous twist shatters our expectations, producing a far more disturbing result.

}Despite its ingenious plot and superb acting, I can sympathise with those who wanted The White Ribbon or The Prophet to win the Foreign Language Oscar ~

The success of this film lies in the unlikely parallels drawn between Colotto’s murderer and our hero Esposito. His ability to seek out Gomez as Colotto’s killer is by recognising Gomez’s look of infatuation in a photo- the same look that he has when he sees Irene. Ricardo Darin as Esposito is a perfect anti-hero, not as handsome as Irene (Soledad Villamil), yet captivating enough to make the audience vouch for him as he trudges along in life, making mistakes on the way and harbouring an unwavering love for his boss.

However, despite its ingenious plot and superb acting, I can sympathise with those who wanted The White Ribbon or The Prophet to win the Foreign Language Oscar as both film endings were leagues above the final shoddy sequence in The Secret in their Eyes. Sadly, the brilliance of the film is sabotaged by its dreadful ending- an unrealistic and hopelessly optimistic conclusion that attempts to reward its protagonist for his troubled love life. Loose ends can easily be tied up in the crime plot of this film, but it’s not so believable when they are readily resolved in the love sub-plot.

Winners of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in the past five years include:

2010- The Secret in Their Eyes

2009- Departures

2008- The Counterfeiters

2007- The Lives of Others

2006- Tsotsi

Review: The Habit of Art

Leeds' finest weaves reality, imagination, art and theatre into his latest production

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As someone who lived in Leeds, home of Alan Bennett, for three wholesome years, my life has been bereft of this Northern national treasure... up until now. Back in London, The National Theatre gave me my first dose of Bennett with The Habit of Art. In this imagined meeting between composer Benjamin Britten and poet, W.H. Auden, the desires of the two men are explored and interrogated through a play within a play with the actors, Fitz and Henry, playing the two men, being paused and interrupted by the stage crew who add their own criticisms and reflections into the mix.

Sounds confusing.

However, instead of feeling bewilderment at this multi-layered plot, like I did after watching the overrated film Inception, this play makes you feel like a child tucking into a sea of Woolworths (RIP) pick and mix selection, savouring each of the many delights that Bennett has lovingly prepared. The play’s metatheatre allow the audience to gently interrogate the creators of art- Britten, Auden and their biographer.

}This play makes you feel like a child tucking into a sea of Woolworths (RIP) pick and mix selection, savouring each of the many delights that Bennett has lovingly prepared~

The originality of this play derives from its use of humour and crudity to explore art, culture and theatre, preventing the play getting too bogged down by its potentially serious subject matter. Auden pisses in a basin in his room, talks irreverently of penises (or is it penii?) and is visited by a rent boy who seems confused when Auden wants to suck him off, not vice versa. As well as creating laughs these moments often contain moving and revealing ideas about art and its potential for destruction and exploitation. The rent boy, who plays an undeniable part in Auden’s life, is excluded from Auden’s biography, despite playing a role in his life. Meanwhile, Britten is criticised for putting himself into the role of victim in attributing his fascination with boys to Eros, god of love, when in reality he is in full control of his exploitative desires.

In this production, no one escapes ridicule- the pretentiousness of poetry is mocked through mock epic renditions of poems about the wrinkles on Auden’s face or the chair he sits on. Auden and Britten are interrupted by the actors who play them, their egos vying for a central role on stage. Donald (Matthew Cottle), who plays the biographer, Humphrey Carpenter, fears that he is a mere stage device, which leads him to don drag, Fitz wears a grotesque Auden mask and the cast bicker with the writer who is desperate to keep the acting to the script.

Despite its ability to garner attention purely by the ubiquity of its writer, the play could have self imploded with its multi-layered plot and its lack of clear chronological progression or resolution. However, it fails to fail because it is expertly written and wonderfully executed, producing something that is hilarious as well as moving. Desmond Barritt as Fitz/Auden is a massive presence on the stage, literally too, with his heavy plod across the stage and oversized cardigan. Malcolm Sinclair, is a perfect complement to Auden, playing the more reserved and tight-lipped Britten/Henry. The presence of a large supporting cast on stage is a constant reminder of the metatheatrical elements of the production and the intricate set, with its attention to detail, illuminates and captures the world of theatre- both behind the scenes and on stage.

The Habit of Art is on at the National Theatre until 21st September

Who is Alan Bennett?

-An actor, playwright, director, broadcaster who has worked on stage, television, radio and film.

-You might remember Talking Heads from GCSE Drama or English. These are a series of dramatic monologues which are often very comic but deal with issues like death, illness, guilt and isolation.

- Famous for The History Boys which was a hit both in UK theatres and Broadway as well as with critics, winning the Olivier Award in 2005 and the Tony Award in 2006. Set in a Grammar School in Sheffield, the play follows some history students preparing for the Oxbridge entrance examinations. The play was adapted into a film in 2006.

- Alan Bennet’s style is characterised by deadpan humour, with personalities who are often unfortunate and dejected.

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