Hayward Gallery
Kader Attia
Diane Arbus
promotional posters for the exhibitions
The Southbank Centre is currently exhibiting two grand shows, exploring decades of work by a French-Algerian installation artist, sculptor and photographer Kader Attia and a New York native, renowned photographer Diane Arbus. The exhibitions completely differ from each other visually, however, they do share identical ideological concerns so it is indeed a very interesting experience to be able to watch both of these artists approach similar subjects from their personal "poetic" perspectives.
in the beginning
Arbus's work from the exhibition
Diane Arbus is probably one of the most prominent and at the same time unorthodox photographers of the 20th century who never had a purpose of creating commercial work and whose images, nevertheless, kept appearing on the pages of Esquire, Harper's Bazaar and The Sunday Times Magazine. This exhibition is a retrospective of her photographic documentation of strippers, transgenders, carnival performers, dwarves and other people who were considered outsiders at that time, as well as more ordinary subjects like children, couples, elderly people and middle-class families, most of whom she met wandering the streets of her hometown.
Because of that Arbus is often considered New York's primary storyteller and it is nearly impossible to imagine this city's past without her participation in it. She told the stories of separate people and families inhabiting the metropolis and through them an image of the city as a whole and the society within it was compound.
"A boy with a Grenade" (right) one of Arbus's most famous photographs
I personally have mixed feelings about the show and work of Arbus as a whole. As an artist she was very much unique in the way that she portrayed these marginalised people. Instead of showing them just the way everyone else saw them - abandoned, shabby, graceless, Arbus made them appealing, enthralling, engaging, captured their personality and character, made them stars of her work. And by putting their images right next to pictures of ordinary people Arbus makes them a part of the society again, makes them accepted.
However, there is one thing that needs to be considered. As the world keeps changing, the art of photography inevitably changes as well and many images, which have been considered "peak-performance" in the past might not seem to be of such great technical work today. So a lot of the images made by Diane Arbus only consist of a great and captivating subject (person) but there is nothing more that would capture viewer's attention in the background and no great work of light as images were only taken using flash both during daytime and dark hours. This is why from my perspective a great number of Arbus's images blend into one continuous black & white mass. In comparison, visual reportage of the same city of New York by Elliott Erwitt is far more versatile, spirited and visually exciting.
images of New York by Elliott Erwitt
And although I accept that the subject matter in Arbus's and Erwitt's work is for the most part different, I still believe that It was possible to create Arbus's images in a much more interesting and diverse manner.
The Museum of Emotion
Attia's exhibition at Southbank Centre
Kader Attia is a French contemporary artist of Algerian descent who spent almost two decades of his earlier years in constant travel between continents - growing up in Paris, visiting family in Algiers, working in the Democratic Republic of Congo and South America and studying at Centre d’Art i Disseny in Barcelona. In his own words the experience with these different cultures, the histories of which over centuries have been characterised by rich trading traditions, colonialism and multi-ethnic societies has laid the foundation for the development of his interdisciplinary socio-cultural artistic approach.
Attia's "La Piste d'atterissage" series
One of the highlights of the exhibition was Attia's "The Landing Strip" photo-series about Algerian illegal transgender sex workers in Paris of 1997. This project brought him international recognition in 2003 when it was exhibited at the 50th Venice Biennale and is considered one of Attia's essential works. The series consists of 160 images taken at their homes, clubs or in the streets and in it Attia explores the everyday life of marginalised people, abandoned by their own nation and having to seek better opportunities overseas.
The difference between this project and many others, concerned with a similar subject matter is that it shows that even people living under such harsh conditions, struggling to earn some money each day are able to forget the overwhelming stress of their routine and let themselves have a great time.
"La Tour Robespierre" installation
Attia grew up in one of the suburban areas of Paris, which are commonly known as banlieues and characterised by an abundance of modernist housing blocks and high levels of crime due to social and economical decline. Many of his earlier works, as well as the recent "La Tour Robespierre" video installation are focused on exploring the concept of what he calls "inhuman modernism". This term coined by the artist himself combines a variety of principles, revolving around modernist architecture itself along with a more sociological understanding of how living under such conditions negatively influences a community.
As for example, Attia mentions the "marginalising effects of modernist housing blocks", which were built around principles of surveillance and control and are similar to those used with colonial populations.
modernist landscape
In the video Attia presents a continuous, flowing upwards view of uniform balconies in one of these housing blocks, which goes on for a couple of minutes making it seem monotonous and endless. Once the camera passes the building block the viewer is instantly presented with a landscape filled with identical "poor, grey, monotonous buildings". Such constructions, which originally were seen as a quick means for providing affordable, clean living with all the necessities have later turned into hotbeds of crime and poverty, both in France and in other European countries.
