(Photographers' Gallery and Ramillies Street to Ridley Road Market, Dalston: 30 August 2014)
The Exhibition
“Dalston Anatomy” is a colourful,
varied celebration of Dalston’s Ridley Road market, created and produced by
London based Italian artist and photographer Lorenzo Vitturi. Over several
years Vitturi integrated himself within the vibrant Ridley Road community
market scene, photographing local characters, collecting discarded fruit and
vegetables and buying materials such as paints, dyes and chalk which, together,
he would use to create makeshift sculptures and installations. These would then
be photographed. The photographs were incorporated into a photo-book, “Dalston
Anatomy”, published in 2013 to critical acclaim.
The exhibition incorporates many
of these photographs together with sculptures and installations which, in a
departure from “normal” photographic exhibitions, cover much of the floor space
in the top gallery.
The Walk
The “Walking Reading Group” is an
experimental group, set up by London-based Artists Lydia Ashman, Ania Bas and
Simone Mair. The group meets on an irregular basis (booking required, to ensure
things don’t get out of hand) to discuss themes arising from exhibitions and
related texts, which are emailed to participants beforehand.
Exhibition Review
Two things struck me when I
walked into the exhibition room. Firstly, the floor space was used to
incorporate colourful installations, including some of Vitturi’s sculptures and
a prominent poem by Sam Berkson, formed of fragments of conversation overheard
at the market, which is written in large print on a mat on the floor (Image 1).
Image 1: Exhibition Layout
Secondly, bright and vibrant
colours are everywhere. Countless varieties of bright fruit and vegetables (we
didn’t recognise them all) form components of the photographic prints and
sculptures (the latter use artificial replacements for the organic items). The prints (thinly) populate the walls, but can also be found on
and around the central installation. Complementary colours in some prints mix
with rainbow effects in others. Only one print (showing five artistically
arranged bananas) is partially drained of colour, for reasons best known to the
artist. Somehow, the subtlety of this print attracted me to take a closer
examination: perhaps the image represents the peace that falls on the market at
night, following the vibrancy of the day’s activities.
The artist is quoted as saying
that “I wanted to capture Ridley Road market’s edgy dynamic”. Many
photographers would have contented themselves with taking portraits of stall
holders and purchasers, discarded food, transactions taking place, the setting
up and the aftermath. Vitturi’s novel use of found objects as well as items bought at
the market in order to create and then photograph art represents a new approach
to celebrating his subject. However, does it take us too far from the market’s
roots? A few street scenes are represented, but they seem incongruous, even out
of place amongst his fruit and vegetable sculptures. Focusing on the latter
means that we are now a further step away from the market and I found it
difficult to visualise or warm to an event that was actually occurring as I
toured the gallery. Which brings us to the walk….
Walk Review
Armed with material to use during
the walk (well, at least a tour of the exhibition and a half hour browse of the
varied texts) I joined up with around 20 other individuals and the walk leaders
for a 4.5 mile walk from the Photographers' Gallery to (of course) Ridley Road
market. After introducing themselves the walk leaders asked us to think up and write down
some “key words” relating to the exhibition and texts on sheets of paper. We
were then asked to pair up with someone whom we did not know, whose key words related
in some ways to our own. After the initial chaos we set off on the walk,
chatting with our new companions about the exhibition, the texts and pretty
much anything else that came to mind. Roughly every 20 minutes we swapped
partners, so that by the end of the walk (yes, we all reached the market) we
had walked with five different people. During the middle section of the walk we
were asked to walk silently, which meant that I learnt little from my third
partner (and vice versa), although at least my throat got a “breather”. After
discussing the exhibition (others had similar views to my own), my gambit of
mentioning how much I disagreed with the author of one of the texts who stated
(in so many words) that pioneering photographers such as Walker Evans, who
photographed poor families in the depression era, exploited their subjects,
started to wear thin. In the end the discussions veered more towards finding
out about my new companions and rather less towards criticising the exhibition
and texts. After spending over four hours at the Photographers’ Gallery and on
the walk, my partner and I said our farewells and left most of the group to continue their conversation at a Ridley Road hostelry.
Conclusions
Exhibitions inevitably reveal
some of the personality of the artist. Whether the viewer buys into the subject
matter of the exhibition will depend to some extent on how well their
personality is matched to that of the artist. In this case I struggled to find
a reason why this exhibition might be greater than or even equal to the sum of
its parts. Yes, I enjoyed the vibrancy of the colours. I also appreciated that
the artist was trying to do something different, as was the Photographers’
Gallery in allowing photographs and other art to be portrayed as an
installation. However, the lack of a clear theme and the lack of empathy that I
felt with the market itself as a result of looking at these photographs did not
align me with the artist’s aims. This feeling was shared by some of my walking
companions.
I have to admit that I was
dragged along rather reluctantly by my partner to the walk. However, I was
pleasantly surprised: I found it uplifting to chat with people, often half my
age or younger, with whom I had something in common, even if at the end of the
walk I hadn’t gained a great insight into the works of the artists and writers
that had been studied. Seeing issues from a different point of view was
refreshing: I can imagine something similar (without the walking) working well
at parties and I’m sure that friendships will be struck up by people who have
attended these events. At the time of writing it is not clear whether Walking Reading
Group events will continue. If not, it was certainly a worthwhile experiment.
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