OTP - Hayward Gallery visit

Today I visited the Hayward Gallery to see two exhibitions which were 'Diane Arbus: in the beginning' and 'Kader Attia: The museum of emotion'. The first exhibition which I walked around was Kader Attia's who defines himself as both an activist and an artist which is quite evident throughout his work. The exhibition consisted of a variety of photographs, sculptures, videos and collages and was exploring 'the ways in which colonialism continues to shape how western societies represent and engage with non-western cultures'. The show was a critique on the modern western systems of control. 

One piece I found particularly interesting was a sculpture made from mirror fragments and metal wire which was titled 'Chaos + repair = universe' which I feel depicts the destruction of the world and all the issues in the form of fragments and if we piece them all together we would have somewhat of a complete society. Repair was a big theme throughout the Museum of emotion which was represented as both a physical and symbolical act, within this particular piece the artist has physically repaired something with certain materials and the videos within the exhibition show how some repair has to be made psychologically. 

Room 2 was heavily photography based compared to most of the other rooms and the photographs within this room were taken from the series 'La Piste d'atterrissage' (the landing strip). The images document a group of Algerian transgender sex workers who were living in Paris in the late 1990's and early 2000's. When speaking about the series Kader Attia said that he 'wanted to represent the whole picture of their lives, to show that even illegal immigrants working as transgender prostitutes have moments of joy, of happiness, of hope' which I feel he has achieved. 

Diane Arbus: In the Beginning

Diane Arbus took the majority of her photographs in New York which is where she was born and also where she died. This exhibition is an exploration of the first seven years of her career from 1956-1962 which was the pivotal time of her career in which she developed her style that she is well known for. Her photographs are mainly created with 35mm cameras and capture various people and places such as Coney Island, Disneyland, Times square etc. A lot of her work focuses around the 'eccentrics' and also people who were marginalised by society at the time such as circus performers as well as this she did also photographed families, couples and places. There were more than 100 photographs within the exhibition and most of them are very intimate and create a connection between the subject and the audience. She was very good at capturing real people in their natural environments.

In terms of the display, the exhibition consisted of a variety of white columns in which a photograph was placed on either side of each of them. This display was quite visually pleasing as well as practical as people could easily navigate their way through it in their own time.  

The images below are the ones I found most memorable when walking around the exhibition, I really like the way she captures her subjects in their own little worlds, like the women in the middle of the street with her eyes closed, almost in a moment of tranquility. I really enjoyed viewing all of these photographs and I really appreciated the variety of different people that she had captured in her time as she seemed to be able to easily bring out their individuality throughout each of them.