Check Wikipedia and look at the genres apparently exercised by London’s Black Midi: ‘Experimental rock; progressive rock; avant-prog; math rock; noise rock; post-punk; jazz fusion’. Cool—what does that mean? Originally formed at the BRIT school by four technically endowed teenage boys, their music on the whole is a postmodern collage of basically everything that came before it in the 20^th century, sealed in wax with ironic vocals. (They’re ironic in both content and delivery: primary vocalist Geordie Greep’s voice is at the intersection between a northerner, Talking Heads, and Ronnie James Dio. I can’t really explain it – just listen to one of their records.) Another comparison I see bandied about the internet is to America’s not-so-cherished Primus, if for nothing but their sheer virtuosity. They’ve also been compared to Slint on occasion, but that is more often reserved for contemporaries Black Country, New Road.

Since being launched by Dan Carey’s Speedy Wunderground label, and championed by basically every BBC Radio 6 Music DJ, Black Midi have established a loyal following made up largely of two major cohorts: edgy people under 25 and edgy men over 45. Despite their apparent differences, both ostensibly have plenty of money to part with for merch and vinyl. And this couldn’t be more evident than at their headline at Somerset House for the Summer Series.

With three albums now under their belt since debut Schlagenheim in 2019, Black Midi have marched on in cavalcade – coincidentally the name of their most recent release, this year (badum-ch). I’ve seen Black Midi a few times now, and this is the first time since founding member Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin took a break from the band in January 2021. In the meantime, Seth Evans has also been added as keyboard maestro.

Their performance at Somerset House was refined, to say the least. Bassist Cameron Picton has graduated from his bleached hair-era to a mullet and porn star-esque moustache; despite being technically egregious for several years, the group has settled even further into their virtuosity. As each member leans further into showing off, the mosh-pit gets even more and more hyped. It feels pretty epic.

What Black Midi might want to think about is the sheer irony of it all. Back in the 90s, Fredric Jameson wrote about something called the ‘waning of affect’, which referred to the emotionless aspect of highly pastiche-like art which emerged in the mid-20th century (e.g. Andy Warhol’s portrait of Marilyn Monroe). The band played quite a few covers – many of them good – but it largely felt like an in-joke, and the whole crowd patted themselves on the back for being in on it. Kate Bush, Tyler, The Creator, and Frank Ocean all found themselves parodied. The covers were funny, but that fruit hung not far from the floor. Seeing young, invigorated, talented musicians on stage are energising;  music fans congratulating themselves for ‘getting the reference’ less so.

Black Midi may be several years and three albums deep into their career now, but they prove that youth does not necessarily preclude experience. It’s entirely apparent that they are technically and creatively gifted, and that there is an ocean of ideas, references, and sounds flying around their heads. What occasionally is lacking is that they sound so distinctive yet so much like those very things they’ve mashed together. Apart from a short chuckle, the esoteric covers amounted to nothing more than their originals.

Credit: Black Midi at Somerset House Summer Series with American Express, Photographer: Richard Thompson

Reviewed by Cian Kinsella-Cian  is a Classics teacher and part-time pub quizmaster living in London who is primarily interested in music but is also interested in theatre, literature, and visual arts. He is particularly intrigued by the relationship between art, criticism, and the capital forces always at play. Furthermore, he believes that subjectivity – which is ultimately at the heart of all artistic and cultural criticism – should not be concealed, but probed and perhaps even celebrated. Who decides what we like? How do they construct widely held beliefs about what is good? These are two of the questions Cian looks to address.

Finding Kate – An Illustrated journey through five decades of the music of Kate Bush, is a gorgeously glossy coffee-table book that gently takes the reader into the sonic-world of the enigmatic and illustrious songstress. Written by Michael Byrne and Marius Herbert, both devoted fans of Kate (as is this reviewer!). This self-published tome first published in late 2021 was Kickstarter funded with contributors spanning 25 countries.

Before I get into the review properly, it would be churlish not to mention that 2022 has been Kate Bush’s year in the most unexpected way. The meteoric rise of ‘Running Up That Hill’, her seminal 80s hit, featured prominently in the TV show ‘Stranger Things’, has given Kate a new-found popularity with a younger audience. As I write this, ‘Running Up That Hill’ is no.1 in the Global 200 Chart. Serendipitous as this must be for the authors of ‘Finding Kate’ (and I hope this boosts interest in their book), it is with a wry smile that I note some passages will need to be rewritten due to ‘Running Up That Hill’s current chart success.

Now onto the contents of the book itself, there are five sections covering the different eras of Kate’s music career and legacy including the late seventies, early eighties, ‘85 to ‘89, nineties to mid-noughties and 2011. The authors have done a fantastic job with the biographical material, it’s zippy and readable for serious and casual fans alike. Also, within the five musical eras, the writers have included in-depth descriptions of their favourite tracks (there is a full list of these further below, which I hope will encourage you, dear reader, to start on a joyous downloading journey). Interspersed throughout there are many dreamy images Kate and vivid illustrative scenes lifted from her songs. Great care has been taken to ensure the overall production of the book has a luxe feel.

Kate’s rise to fame is thoughtfully covered. I was struck by how remarkably young she was, at only 19, when she first burst onto the late seventies’ music scene with her self-penned no. 1 hit ‘Wuthering Heights’. Prior to this, she had been composing songs on the piano, learning to dance under the tutelage of mime artist Lindsey Kemp and honing her performance and singing skills gigging around South London pubs. Propelled into instant stardom at such a tender age, those early years moved at a break-neck speed. With two albums under her belt by 1979, she toured the UK and Europe with her live show ‘Tour of Life’. This Kate Bush fan was charmed that the book included a curious but little-known fact about our songstress. For the tour, Kate and her sound engineer invented the handless microphone so she could sing and dance at the same time, in 1979 this was highly innovative and eons ahead of what anyone else was doing.

Reading through the passages about how Kate approached and produced her albums, I was reminded of what a true auteur she is. Overseeing every aspect of her artistic output, from the writing and production of her music, as well as storyboarding and directing the music videos. It’s impressive to consider, that at 23, Kate cut her teeth self-producing 1982’s ‘The Dreaming’. Then just a few years later wrote and produced what is considered her magnus opus ‘Hounds of Love’ to critical acclaim and chart success. It’s an album that’s as fresh now as it was back in 1985. ‘Running Up That Hill’ (was the lead single) and is enjoying a second lease of life 37 years later, a testament to the longevity and appeal of Kate’s music.

‘Finding Kate’ tells the remainder of our heroine’s story with admiration and care. The hardships and challenges of her life are sympathetically portrayed without being cloying. Having had enough of scrutiny and fame, from the mid-90s onwards, she withdrew from public life to raise her son, Bertie, with her partner, Danny McIntosh. It’s around this time that album releases stalled. With no musical output for around a decade, Kate surprised her fans and the public alike by releasing ‘Aerial’ in 2005, to much fanfare and critical adulation. The final section of the book covers 2011, which was a bumper year for Kate’s fans used to her staggered approach, ‘Director’s Cut’, an album of reworked songs was released and later that year ’50 Words for Snow’.

It was a pleasure to read through the reflective pieces on Kate’s songs and be reminded of the weird and wonderful subjects she’s covered. There’s the ghost of Cathy Earnshaw pleading with Heathcliffe through the window to let her in (Wuthering Heights), a syphilitic elderly English composer shouting at his scribe (Delius), nuclear war from the perspective of an unborn child (Breathing), people smugglers on a risky mission (Night of the Swallow), a woman lost at sea desperately trying not to drown (The Ninth Wave), Molly Bloom’s soliloquy from Ulysses (The Sensual World), Kate mimicking blackbirds’ singing (Aerial Tal) and a woman making love with a snowman that’s come to life(!) (Misty), to name but a few.

Our authors, Michael Byrne, and Marius Herbert are Irish, and they emphasize how Kate’s Irish heritage (she is half-Irish from her mother’s side) have greatly influenced and shaped her music. This is evidenced on many of Kates’ songs particularly ‘Army Dreamers’, ‘Night of the Swallow’ and ‘Jig of Life’ – all are eulogised with their own pages in the book. I agree with the writer’s that Kate’s cover version of Irish rebel-song, ‘Mná na hÉireann’(meaning women of Ireland) emotively sung in Irish is aurally stunning. It’s fantastic to see its inclusion in the book and strongly urge anyone reading this to listen to ‘Mná na hÉireann’ now.

Throughout ‘Finding Kate’, the authors infuse their writing with their thoughts and feelings about Kate and her songs, which makes the reader feel like they’re joining in on a conversation with their music-obsessed, nerdy but cool friends. If you’re new to Kate or a long-time fan, perusing the pages of ‘Finding Kate’ is a real treat. Gift it to yourself and your loved ones! You won’t regret it!

Songs featured in ‘Finding Kate’ for some happy downloading:

Wuthering Heights (1978 or 1986)

The Man with the Child in his Eyes (1978)

Wow (1979)

Army Dreamers (1980)

Blow Away (For Bill) (1980)

Delius – Song of Summer (1980)

Breathing (1980)

Sat in Your Lap (1981)

Night of the Swallow (1982)

Hello Earth (1985)

The Big Sky (1985)

Jig of Life (1985)

This Woman’s Work (1989)

The Sensual World (1989)

Love and Anger (1989)

Reaching Out (1989)

Moments of Pleasure (1993)

Why Should I Love You? (1993)

The Man I Love (1994)

Mná na hÉireann (1996)

How to be Invisible (2005)

Sunset (2005)

Snowed in at Wheeler Street (2011)

Wild Man (2011)

50 Words for Snow (2011)

Misty (2011)

Independently published, Finding Kate is available in hardcover /casebound at €39.95 plus shipping, (including worldwide) from the authors website at: https://bit.ly/3QmOZal

Pace Gallery is presenting a group exhibition, curated by Kojo Abudu, ‘Living with Ghosts’. The exhibition brings together the work of nine pioneering artists whose work explores the ways the unresolved traumas of Africa’s colonial past, and its unfulfilled project of decolonisation, continue to shape the present global order.

The exhibition showcases various types of media, from videos and installations, written work, and powerful images, to display the long-lasting effects of colonialism and provide insight into Africa’s violent past.  As a whole, it evokes a deeper understanding of the harsh realities faced by indigenous peoples both physically and psychologically in colonial times, and which still continue to reverberate through the continent.

Walking into the exhibition space, I was drawn to the video playing, ‘Foreword to Guns for Banta’, by Mathieu Kleybe Abonnec. This is a video interview, relaying memories from the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence, 1963 – 1974. The video emphasised the struggles and sacrifices made for freedom against the oppressive hands of imperialists. What I found particularly insightful from this video, was the focus on daily life during the war, as it explored the roles that different people had in the struggle. Men would fight on the battlefield, whilst women and children would transport necessities, from food to weaponry, to them. This would mean walking hundreds of kilometres through brush, whilst avoiding ambushes from the Portuguese Army. The video emphasised the nature of comradery and sacrifice amongst the people as they all shared the same goal – liberation.

‘Constructed Realities’ by Abraham Oghobase consists of various texts printed on silk organza, which explored the authority of colonial powers upon the lands and peoples which they colonised. Upon reading the texts, it became clear how deeply institutionalised colonialism was in Africa, and how the Empires exploited both the lands and the people. For example, the print titled ‘Evils and Extenuations of Slavery’, states that “It is the most serious charge against Islam in Africa that it has encouraged and given religious sanction to slavery.”. The text reveals colonial attitudes towards slavery and how it was viewed as a system which was essential across the continent.

Bouchra Khalili’s work encompasses a mix of film, video, installation, photography, and printmaking. The video playing focuses more so on the post-colonial era and contemporary continuums of imperialism, as well as reflecting upon anti-colonial struggles and international solidarity movements. Khalili explores themes of self-representation, forms of resistance and communal solidarity.

This exhibition allows the viewer to both learn and reflect upon colonialism in Africa and how it continues to impact the current world order. The nature of this exhibition provides a variety of perspective and focus, enabling the viewer to see the effects of colonialism – in the past and present – through different lenses.

This exhibition is on at the Pace Gallery from July 8 – August 5, 2022. Click here to find out more: https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/living-with-ghosts-london/

Photography by Saskia Flower, Pace.

Reviewed by Ridha Sheikh – Ridha is a volunteer writer for Abundant Art. She is a recent History and Politics graduate from Queen Mary – University of London. Ridha is excited to explore and share her strong passion for London’s art scene.

A lost phone, left unlocked in a public bathroom, becomes the basis of Mahmoud Khaled’s first solo exhibition in the U.K. The texts and images stored on this iPhone paint an enigmatic dreamscape, moving between the mundane and the intimate, the erotic and the isolated. Screenshots evoke the banality of endless scrolling and swiping; and yet the presence of mindfulness apps aimed at insomniacs constitutes a cry for respite from a fast-paced, digitized world. The sheer volume of unfiltered information retained by this mobile device symptomizes the endless consumption of media intrinsic to modern life; whilst notes of dissonance – sleeplessness, anxiety, isolation – suggest that the contemporary world manifests perennial forms of human suffering in manners new.

The exhibition itself is an immersive experience that has The Mosaic Rooms transformed into an imaginary home for an imaginary stranger. The period architecture and décor of the gallery are subversively infused with modern references to queerness and social media. Khaled plays with the antique grandeur of the gallery space, once an upper-middle class family home, by injecting it with notes of dissonance. One room takes a day-bed – a symbol of leisure and luxury – but upon recognition of the distorted, disproportionate size of the sofa, any sense of ease is undermined. Leather straps recall sexuality; and whilst the mindfulness track played on speaker is initially calming, the endless looping of the audio suggests that serenity is never achieved. The downstairs room, dominated by a bizarrely circular bed, is windowless, dark and claustrophobic; this, too, is no place of rest. Close inspection of the wall-paper reveals the presence of a desktop ‘loading’ icon in the corner of the repeated motif. Despite references to sexuality, the anonymity of the exhibition’s central figure, and the absence of any reference to friends or lovers, makes the whole space seem oddly isolated, even fragmented. This is a complex emotional landscape that leaves the visitor strangely uneasy.

The exhibition gestures to a host of cultural traditions without necessarily articulating a defined critical position. The form of the installation recalls the house-museum, in which a famous person’s home is turned into a public space; yet our protagonist is a stranger, and a fictional stranger at that. The sofa-beds and leather straps refer to Freud, a sensibility compounded by the dialogue between dream and reality evoked by the space. Moving through each room, one definitely has the feeling that there are many layers of this exhibition to uncover.

The flipside of the coin is that the highly conceptual nature of Khaled’s work does make it somewhat inaccessible. Without foreknowledge of certain cultural traditions and intellectual histories, it would be easy to miss the probing questions that the exhibition gently raises. It took me a while to understand how the fiction of the lost phone related to the gallery-space; and if I hadn’t shared a conversation with the curator, I’m not sure that I would have picked up on the notes of dissonance imbued within each room. Although a brief explanatory guide does excavate some of Khaled’s ideas, I still found that the exhibition verges on nebulous. Perhaps it is a personal preference for clarity that for me clashed with the meandering nature of this work, but I do wonder if other visitors would also have benefitted from a little more transparency. As it stands, the exhibition left a distinct impression on me, but few of my thoughts crystallized into lucid expression; perhaps, however, that was Khaled’s intention.

The exhibition is on until 25 September 2022 at The Mosai Rooms Open 11am – 6pm | Tuesday – Sunday | Free Entry  http://www.mosaicrooms.org/

Reviewed by Sophia Sheera – Sophia is a writer interested in migration, cultural citizenship, displacement and queerness with a focus on Central Asia and Northern India. Sophia is inspired by talking to the people whose stories are sidetracked by sensationalist headlines, and as such aspires to share those counter-narratives through political journalism.

As part of their outdoor summer festival 2022, Iris theatre presents Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”,  an adaptation with a twist by Sara Aniqah Malik!

Drinks in hand, the audience is jolted from their pre-show mingling by a loud voice. Heads turn – it’s Puck, but with paint spotted all over her skirt. We are introduced to the twist: Athens is now a high school in the 90s, with cliques, cheerleaders and goths. A colourful array of characters enter – Snout, Bottom and Starveling, except they’re in glee club. The audience, now intrigued, follows Puck around the  church to a beautiful outdoor stage by the entrance. The rest of the characters are introduced, each one bringing a wave of laughter as their role in Athens Academy is revealed.

The story unravels as the audience is drawn from location to location – inside the church, in the garden, and back to the initial stage – while accompanied by a sense of nostalgia brought by 90s pop songs. Just outside the entrance to the church, we are introduced to Hermia and Lysander: two teenagers in love, plagued by Hermia’s promise to accompany Demetrius to the prom. As the evening progresses, Oberon and Titania emerge and we witness Oberon confess his love for Titania by serenading her with his old-school stereo. Plans are put in place by the characters: Hermia and Lysander steal away from campus, and Puck will bewitch Titania. In shimmering lights and loud music, the audience watches as drama unfolds at the Athens Academy prom.

In the forest ‘beyond the bleachers’ (a short walk from the church to the garden),  the lovers run around in delicate dresses and stylish suits while the glee club searches for a place to rehearse for regionals. Desperate Helena vies for Demetrius’ attention, who is distraught at the disappearance of Hermia and Lysander. Laughter is once again echoed throughout the audience while turmoil ensues as the lovers find themselves entangled in each others’ relationships. The play ends in the church, at regionals, where the glee club performs a hilarious presentation of Pyramus and Thisbe.

The cast put on an expressive and engaging performance. Every word spoken by the actors convince the audience of their emotions. Each scene is played with strength and conviction,  building  up to a hilarious finale that send the audience home with cheers and smiles. With everything from theatre geeks to cheerleaders, Sara Aniqah Malik’s adaptation brings a humorous perspective to one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays. It keeps the genre relevant today, especially to a younger audience. Few weeks ago we interviewed Zena Carswell who plays Helena, where she told us “audiences will appreciate the slight twist on the original”. Read Carswell’ interview here Interview with Zena Carswell, A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Iris Theatre – Abundant Art

Photo Credit: Katie Edwards

Box Office:https://iristheatre.ticketsolve.com/shows

Reviewed by Aishani Chatterjee- Aishani is a Year 10 student at Latymer School and is learning Classical Ballet and Indian Classical dance Kathak. Her love for dance and her interest in media studies and performing arts draws her into watching performances, learning from a varied range of presentations and writing about them.

Extended monologues, audience shaming and ample self-loathing: The Times’ best living stand-up, Stewart Lee is back with his rescheduled show Snowflake/Tornado. 

The show is a double bill of two, new, sixty-minute sets – weirdly, delivered in the opposite order to the title. Tornado is centered around Netflix incorrectly attributing the synopsis of Sharknado to Lee’s series Comedy Vehicle. The first half is funny and well paced, it sees bits on mainstream comedians who haven’t had their comedy special synopses tampered with – Ricky Gervais and Jimmy Carr both, fairly, fall victim. Lee also talks at length about rotisserie chickens and ends the set with a ropey impression of Alan Bennett reading allowed from a Bennett-fied Sharknado – brilliant.    

The second half is equally as layered, sharp and silly. Snowflake focuses on the absurdity of wokeness and despite its ubiquity, the fact is, it still has little effect on the content we’re shown. In this part we return to the Netflix synopsis of Ricky Gervais’ latest comedy output, which states ‘Gervais says the unsayable’. For several minutes, Lee performs an almost-silent, drawn out impression of Gervais attempting to say words, getting increasingly more ridiculous and causing the audience to cry with laughter. Lee defends wokeness with a heavy dose of ridicule and plenty of self-awareness, ruminating that ultimately it has made no difference as the two best-selling comedians (Gervais and Carr) are still paid to make unnecessarily controversial shows. On a lighter note, we also hear about Lee’s nan’s confusion between ‘political correctness’ and ‘health and safety’ and her frustration at not being allowed to eat soup wherever she wants. 

In Snowflake/Tornado, like all of Lee’s shows, jokes wind together and segway seamlessly with earlier references often slipping back into the monologue just as you forget about them. Snowflake/Tornado sees heaps of new material whilst still featuring Lee’s calling cards; repetition, in-jokes and plenty of audience berating. On multiple occasions, Lee stops the audience to critique their reactions and explain why the joke we missed was funny. However, in a change to normal proceedings, the show ends with a tender moment, as Lee very genuinely thanks the audience for attending the show. A heartwarming moment acknowledging the lack of stand-up shows over the last two years and all that came with it.

A recording of Snowflake/Tornado will be coming to the BBC later this year, details to be confirmed. Throughout August, Stewart Lee will be performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, with his next tour beginning in September. Further details are available here.

Image Credit: Tristram Kenton

Reviewed by Amy Melling – Amy is a Curator and Creative Producer whose practice is centred around community-led arts projects. Her current research is focused on curatorial methods for exhibiting artworks outside. Amy has a keen interest in the arts and recently completed an MA in Curating and Collections at Chelsea College of Arts, UAL.

Although the Bantu Jazz Orchestra was only assembled in 2017, Gabon’s Frédéric Gassita has been making music for over three decades. He was the third (ever!) African student accepted at Berklee College of Music, in Boston, in 1988, and is the president of the African Music Institute in Gabon’s capital, Libreville. But that’s nothing 30 seconds skimming Wikipedia won’t tell you. For the sports fans out there, he’s instantly recognisable as the founder and president of Gabon’s best football club, Akanda FC. He also used to be their striker, and was apparently the Gabonese league’s top scorer, once upon a time.

Presumably rushed off his feet, with one in the realm of sport and the other in that of music, Gassita’s performance at London’s Barbican was the Bantu Jazz Orchestra’s first ever performance outside of the African continent. Outside of this ensemble, however, he can include recording with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra amongst his achievements. The Bantu Jazz Orchestra is a big band, and features the Eben Voices of Gabon Choir, some guest vocalists, and a dance troupe.

There cannot be many terms as loaded and misunderstood in Europe and North America as ‘African Jazz’. Perhaps part of the complexity of this issue lies in the tension between African artists championing the unity of their musical tradition’s (a good thing) while also highlighting the vast diversity in the musical traditions of African peoples (also good). Without a doubt, on hearing the term, many will instantly think of Afrobeat, popularised by Nigeria’s Fela Kuti, and his children and influencées who followed in his rhythmic rave and loud political voice. This is why one might be surprised at the subtlety of Gassita’s music – he blends the Western Classical tradition with jazz and Gabonese harmonies and rhythms in an enticing way. Gassita’s compositions clearly demonstrate his confidence in a wide range of musical styles. One composition can feel like the soundtrack to a film that doesn’t exist, yet five minutes later the same composition can have everyone up and dancing.

One question after seeing Gassita’s orchestra is, ‘Why might one come to a show with preconceptions of what African jazz is?’ After all, blues and jazz were developed by Black performers involuntarily removed to America and indentured as slaves in the United States. African harmonies, structures, and rhythms are integral to these traditions and ultimately all popular music today. To witness and appreciate the Bantu Jazz Orchestra with a beginner’s mindset, with nothing but an appreciation and reverence for Gassita’s composition – his own interpretation of African jazz – is a great pleasure. And the glimpse we saw of his understated personality was brilliantly charming.

Reviewed by Cian Kinsella-Cian  is a Classics teacher and part-time pub quizmaster living in London who is primarily interested in music but is also interested in theatre, literature, and visual arts. He is particularly intrigued by the relationship between art, criticism, and the capital forces always at play. Furthermore, he believes that subjectivity – which is ultimately at the heart of all artistic and cultural criticism – should not be concealed, but probed and perhaps even celebrated. Who decides what we like? How do they construct widely held beliefs about what is good? These are two of the questions Cian looks to address.

Each year the RA Schools offer 15 early-career artists the opportunity to study on its full-time, no-fee, three-year programme. The course, as old as the Academy itself, was founded in 1769 and boasts a plethora of art-world giants in its alumni – JMW Turner, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Michael Armitage and Rebecca Ackroyd, to name but a few.

This year, however, is a little different. The graduating artists have undertaken the programme plus an additional year (2020/21) – allowing them to make up for time lost due to COVID-19. However, this lack of studio time doesn’t seem to have constrained their work as the exhibition sees a whole range of mediums including performance, photography, installation, painting and moving images.

The exhibition exists in the in-between spaces; long corridors leading to dark installations, boiler rooms filled with concrete sculptures, and empty pigeon holes used to hang canvases. Here, the graduates have reconsidered space. They are experimental, playful, and sometimes excessively conceptual – perhaps the only logical outcome of studying through two years of lockdowns?

In one of the first rooms, Luke Samuel’s minimalist paintings stretch the length of the space – they are solid but delicate. The block tones against the whitewashed wall anchor the viewer’s eye to them immediately. Conversely, Kobby Adi’s The removal of all visible and obscured plaster casts, with the promise of being returned, 2022, also catches your eye. Or perhaps that should be, doesn’t catch your eye, as the work is about the absence of these objects – the residual traces still on the wall, showing their outlines. These works are intriguing, they leave you wanting to know more. 

However, a little further on, Rebecca K. Halliwell-Sutton’s multi-media practice stops you in your tracks. Through ions and stratus i, ii, & iii, 2022 sees three aluminum sculptures projected from the walls on curved steel rods. The large 3D works seem weightless, almost like stingrays floating in water. In contrast, on the other side of the space is a small room with a padded bench containing the work Infinite Loop, 2022. Inside, a speaker plays a poem recited in a women’s soft northern accent – it is calming, like a long phone call with a relative. Halliwell-Sutton’s work often explores intergenerational connection through time, bodies and place. Here, the works are powerful, emotive, subtle. 

The RA Schools show is showing in the studios of the Royal Academy every Tues – Sun, 10am – 6pm, until 3 July 2022. It is free with no booking required.

Photo of Artist Rebecca K Halliwell Sutton’s piece by Amy Melling (see biog below)

For more info: www.royalacademy.org.uk

Reviewed by Amy Melling – Amy is a Curator and Creative Producer whose practice is centred around community-led arts projects. Her current research is focused on curatorial methods for exhibiting artworks outside. Amy has a keen interest in the arts and recently completed an MA in Curating and Collections at Chelsea College of Arts, UAL.

‘Darkie Armo Girl’, a one-woman show both written and performed by Karine Bedrossian, offers an intense and intimate glimpse into the life of its creator. The play takes the form of a theatricalized memoir chronicling Karine’s life, accompanied by the retrospective analysis of the present-day Karine, who acts as our narrator. It begins by relating the recent history of Karine’s family – the Armenian genocide, her parents’ relocation to the U.K. – then chronologically excavates Karine’s development into adulthood. Karine paints a complex picture of her younger self; from the age of seven, she is already fiercely intelligent, proud, somewhat naïve, and very deeply hurt. As she grows up, she suffers multiple traumas at the hands of those around her: discriminatory school children, neglectful parents and abusive men. Despite her outspoken and glamorous façade, present-day Karine helps us to understand that our protagonist is in constant battle with a destructive urge to self-sabotage; and that despite her many friends, she feels incredibly alone.

There are plenty of themes in this real-life story that hint at wider political issues permeating contemporary society: for example, Karine’s narrative touches on racialized prejudice, the sexualization of teenage girls, and the kinds of male power abuses that are institutionalised within the entertainment industry. Karine’s story, in fact, could be a case study of intersectional oppression, exemplifying the complex and varied experiences that a woman of colour in the entertainment world grows to expect. However, Karine’s piece is not explicitly political; although her narrative gestures to the ongoing exploitation of marginalised women, the play is often couched in this one personal story.

For someone like Karine, who has suffered such dislocation and disempowerment at the hands of the institutionally powerful, the act of writing and staging a show that illustrates her own side of the story is potent. This isn’t the sort of story often prioritized by mainstream theatre. ‘Darkie Armo Girl’ is the form through which Karine chooses to reclaim her narrative by recalling the events that have shaped her life in the language that she chooses. This is a woman who refuses to be silenced; instead, she uses her myriad talents in the performing arts to tell her story, strikingly solo, on an intimately small stage.

There were a few artistic choices made by Karine and her team that I didn’t quite agree with; I thought that her allusions to specific triggering topics were sometimes blasé and require greater sensitivity. I believe, too, that Karine slipped into self-victimization at times, without interrogating the privileges that she does enjoy. Regardless, it was clear that for Karine, relating her personal memoir through the medium of theatre provided a therapeutic intervention through which she was able to reassert stolen agency; and none of my criticisms can undermine this. In choosing the stage, she allows – indeed, compels – a live audience to witness her survival; so that, together, audience and actor emerge stronger and wiser at the play’s end.

Ticket info: finboroughtheatre.co.uk

Karine Bedrossian: Photo credit Stuart Ray

Sophia Sheera is a writer interested in migration, cultural citizenship, displacement and queerness with a focus on Central Asia and Northern India. Sophia is inspired by talking to the people whose stories are sidetracked by sensationalist headlines, and as such aspires to share those counter-narratives through political journalism.