White Flag Projects brings in the next wave of Cool Britannia
By Dana Turkovic
Hosted by White Flag Projects and curated by Katrina Hallowell, a graduate of the master’s course at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London, “The Great Escape: New Art From London” brings together work this month by London-based artists including David Blandy, Richard Galpin and Adam Humphries, among others. The show is a cultural and geographic mapping that draws on the physical landscape of London, concentrating on a small group of artists whose work spans real history, fictionalized history, sports, music and art in an eclectic way and represents the city’s status as an important international art scene.
Hallowell’s choice of “The Great Escape” as the title for the exhibition references popular English culture on multiple levels, referring simultaneously to a venerated historical episode where British prisoners of war staged a mass escape from a German Stalag (POW camp), the blockbuster film starring the iconic Steve McQueen, the adoption of the movie theme tune by English soccer fans at World Cup matches, and finally the title of the 1995 album by Britpop band Blur. All references fuse British military mythology, sporting ritual and musical culture into the collective of English cultural DNA—the phrase is part of both national identity and the country’s artistic identity.
By focusing on multiple and fluid identities (that are, in this case, culturally constructed), artist Adam Humphries will cast a site-specific installation during his residency in St. Louis. The piece will be carved from polystyrene and is intended to mimic objects that normally go unnoticed, such as common rubbish, weeds, dust and debris. Ideologically and/or physically, the piece will be the artist’s response to the history and changing landscape of the city, focusing on place-identity and allowing the viewer to inhabit a sculptural landscape where throwaway objects of varying scale and proportion occupy the same space.
Another emerging artist in the exhibition, David Blandy, is a graduate of two of the most important art schools in London: the Chelsea School of Fine Art and Design and the Slade School of Fine Art. Blandy creates video/performance pieces that investigate his “cultural position in the world” by appropriating, combining and layering images of urban and rural landscapes and comical mimicry of rap and soul recordings. His application of others’ musical language is recurrent throughout his work. From the Underground (2001) records Blandy mouthing Wu-Tang Clan’s song “Bring Da Ruckus,” while descending into the Archway stop on the tube. Blandy’s own personal sense of self stems from his exploration of language used in popular music, especially that of “Northern Soul”; as a whole, his work poses the complicated question of whether he has an identity that transcends the mass-media influences from music, film and television.
The work in this exhibition questions our relationship to our environment, be it physical or psychological. As the curator, Hallowell outlines her own experience of place, in this case London, presenting its physical phenomena through the combination of these artworks and a collection of modern life, culture and regeneration. “The Great Escape” will explore the complex relationship between geographic location, universality, personal identity and the visual poetry involved in their discovery.
“The Great Escape: New Art From London” opens at White Flag Projects (4568 Manchester, 314-531-3442, whiteflagprojects.org) on November 19, with a reception 7–11 p.m., and runs through December 23. Hours are noon–7 p.m. Wed, noon–5 p.m. Sat and by appointment.
