Week 3:
Performing Black Culture: Contested Spaces and Rural Landscapes
In her photography and filmmaking, Rhea Storr explores the spaces in which Black cultures are performed, particularly in rural or contested spaces.
In her Art on the Underground commission, Rhea Storr uses an outdated military surveillance photographic film called aerochrome, once used for monitoring and control and now used with experimental openness. This film turns reflections of infra-red light into vivid shades of red and pink and, in contrast, centres bodies, drawing focus to human movement. The images were produced during a photo shoot with artist Jade Blackstock and staged in commons throughout London.
This week, we will examine the use of portrait photography and landscape imagery as a means through which to explore the contested spaces where Blackness is embodied and performed, from the streets of the city to the rural landscapes of the countryside.
Learning Methods
Read & Look: Photographing Black Britain: Neil Kenlock and Armet Francis
Look: Ingrid Pollard: 'The Cost of the English Landscape' (1989)