Portraiture is more than what we look like, it is also about our memories and internal dialogue(s).
Courtenay Welcome ‘I as a fact’ 2021
Reflections: thoughts on the way things are done, ideas about what can be changed. Your own image in the mirror looking back at you. A large number of us have been in a self-reflective mind-state over the past year. And on a societal level, institutions and structures have been prodded to examine how they operate, whom they glorify and whom they exclude. Many are fighting to see institutions change, and more still are sceptical about how sincere or sustainable change brought about by social pressure can really be.
Meanwhile, others are making moves outside institutions at a grand scale, forging new paths as alternatives to old ones. Thorpe Starvi, a curatorial duo who produce sculptural and installation art shows in outdoor spaces and warehouses, have enlisted 10 curators without their own permanent gallery spaces for The Factory Project; the repurposing of a 67,640sqft factory into a collection of galleries exhibiting work by diverse artists. Sourcing spaces that are about to be turned into new developments, Thorpe Stavri put on art shows during that stitch of time before construction begins. Pacheanne Anderson is one of the curatorial partners selected by the duo to transform the space; Scratching the Surface presents unconventional methods of portraiture, allowing the artists involved to examine their reflection in whichever way their imagination dictates.
Pacheanne, why did you choose portraiture as a theme?
Pacheanne: The inspiration for came from my visit to Jennifer Packer’s show ‘The Eye is Not Satisfied With Seeing’ at the Serpentine Gallery last December; the intimacy and fragmented approach to the work made me want to curate a show on portraiture that’s more about the essence of who we are and not so much about what we look like, centring memories and internal dialogue. So the focus has been on the contemplative side of the creative process, the artists’ thoughts and feelings about themselves and their position in the world. Some of the artists have made new work for the show, others have continued to develop existing research, and some of the work has been made directly within the space itself.
Rachel Williams, the work you have made for the show is a new piece. What materials have you used and how does your work reflect portraiture?
Rachel: My work is a large installation and other smaller sculptures made from latex. They form a self-portrait of Past ‘Me’s and represent a self-death of old personalities, insecurities, who I thought I was. I’m framing death as a super-positive thing, a necessary transitional period in becoming my true self. To be alive, to truly live, you can’t deny death – you have to acknowledge that it’s there. My thought process around the joy death can bring is something I’ve always felt, but being able to express that openly is quite new for me. Working with Pacheanne has helped me to face my barriers around putting that out there.
How have those barriers shown up in your work previously?
Rachel: All the themes in my work are related to myself, my family, my experiences. So I was always questioning ‘how much should I share?’ Although my experiences are mine, they are shared histories, so I felt a duty of care – like I was leaving other people in my life vulnerable or exposed without their permission. I’ve had to work at accepting my truth. It sounds cheesy but it was liberating. In finishing my work I truly felt a release and a oneness with what I had created.
And Chloe Filani, your sound piece in the show is part of an existing body of work?
Chloe: Yes, Negro Ecstasy or Black Ecstasy is an on-going research project about black sound and the unity experienced through it. The piece began as a response to a Languid Hands show Towards a Black Testimony: Prayer, Protest, Peace at the Jerwood Gallery in 2019; a combination of found and recorded footage, with spoken word over a jazz soundtrack featuring vocalist Abbey Lincoln. I had this idea around black feeling, black love, black sorrow and black joy and how we name these things. There is something quite specific about the connectivity that we have as black folk towards these emotions. I was really interested in the idea of the spark that happens before a feeling itself, and also how that spark exists in music videos or songs – a certain section of a song can be something black folks all connect to: the ‘drop’ – we all know it and we feel it, and we share that feeling openly. I also consider Black Frequency, and how there are different frequencies of connection within black music. Generations of ancestral and tribal music are so connected to where we’re at now - from hip-hop to jazz to disco. And the different forms of black music embody everything from an almost trance-like energy to meditative spiritually enlightening moments.
This idea of the ‘spark’ before a feeling is really insightful. Can you give an example?
Chloe: When Chadwick Boseman passed for example – I was at work at SLG when I found out and none of my white colleagues were talking about it. Then I saw all my black friends on my Instagram feed responding to the news– that sense of shared recognition gave me something that almost felt like a spark of joy for a second – this feeling that we were all in this together – and then the sadness came. So I’m still trying to figure out what that is: I’m not saying ‘this is a thing, you need to believe it.’ I’m just putting it out there that this might be a thing.
Where did you source your audio?
Chloe: Mostly from Instagram clips that were being shared in 2020. One is of a woman named Victoria Santa Cruz performing a speech-slash-poem to a drumbeat. She is claiming herself: “I am a Black woman, I am Black”in Portuguese: “I am Negra, I am Negra.” There is a lot of Aaliyah in the piece because I’m a big fan. She really resonates with young people, and now her music is available on streaming platforms there’s a reconnection to her voice that feels both old and new. The piece will be played in the space through speakers so you won’t need headphones to listen.
Chloe Filani sifting with her sound piece entitled ‘Negro Ecstasy’
And Courtenay Welcome, some of your work was made within the space itself. How did the building’s history impact your work?
Courtenay: My boundaries are starting to surface about what spaces I choose to occupy and what work I choose to share. I agreed to do the show before even realising what kind of ties the building had. Even on the basic level in relation to sugar: there was a period of time when I was examining sugar, the material obligations of sugar in my life, my addiction to sugar now, and of course the historical roots and how that ties into my identity too. So I got into a hole regarding the show where I was pretty uncomfortable – like ‘do I even want to make this work or show it in this space anymore?’ Then I just had to pull myself back out of that hole. Like ’Bitch! You’re gonna be fine’ (laughs). We’re in it as a group, occupying the space together – I have been in shows where I have been the only black artist, so having the community of other artists in this show helped to reassure me.
And what work will you be showing?
Courtenay: I resonated with what Rachel said about transitional states within identity – for me though it’s not so much from a perspective of death, but more how these bodies of identities stay with me continuously and help shape the way I see and experience the world. My piece looks at two versions of myself, trying to depict how self-consciousness looks. It’s an installation with many mixed materials – painting is involved and images of hands that act as guidance to help point the viewer through the installation.
Courtenay Welcome ‘I as ’ 2021
Pacheanne, has working on this show taken your curatorial practice in any new directions?
Pacheanne: This show for me has been a new way of working because there are other identities in the show. Until now I had only featured black and queer artists – in this show we’ve got non-black POC and two white artists. I want to see diversity in the art world with blackness at the forefront, while including other identities that also get left behind. Over the past few months I’ve been researching Indian and South Asian artists as another underrepresented group. Mohammed Adel is South Asian, and a lot of the perspectives he raises have crossovers – those fragmented states of Britishness, being first generation without having ever visited your country of origin, the deep connection to culture at home, the different perspectives of colonialism – when I put the work together a lot of the things Chloe speaks about for example are a lot of the things Mohammed and I have spoken about. This show is an expansion based on new insights. My priority is still black artists with a wider view reflecting what I would like to see in exhibitions generally.
Curator Pacheanne Anderson photo: Cicely Grace
And what has the experience been like overall? Has it come together as you wanted it to?
Pacheanne: Working with Eric (Thorp) and Nick (Stavri) has been great because they’re just regular guys. There’s been none of that art world pompous fuckrey – you show up how you want, speak how you want, you be you. Not wanting to work in institutional spaces and finding out this was once a Tate and Lyle factory – at first I thought ‘Nah.’ But then I was like ok, it’s not a Tate and Lyle factory now: how can I reform the space and make this space ours? And once I’d got all the work in the space I knew this was the right choice. Our gallery is the entrance, about a 3rd of the size of the warehouse – and as the entry point, we set the tone. When you see the work, it will feel good. It’s our portrait, our image, our reflection – on our terms.
Scratching the Surface will be on show at The Factory Project during Frieze, from 09/10/21 - 22/10/2
