East End Review

Tag: Iniva

  • INIVA Gallery evening courses begin with A Revisionist History of Art 1946-2015

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    Iniva Gallery on Rivington Street in Shoreditch

    Iniva presents a short course that offers an introduction to international art history from 1945-2015 devised and taught by Dr. Juliet Steyn PhD. Using a chronological framework the five sessions map out the site of global art as a contested arena fraught with geographical, institutional and political tensions.

    The five sessions will explore issues of identity politics, the role of institutional frames and the commodification of the cultural sector in contemporary art. A number of artists and thinkers will be considered including: The New Vision Group Gallery, The Kitchen Sink School, John Berger, Stuart Hall, Donald Preziosi, Ingrid Pollard, Hans Haacke, Aubrey Williams, Fred Wilson, Carsten Höller and Francis Bacon.

    Course Price:
    £195 per person (15% Student Discount Available)
    Price includes all 5 sessions, 7.5 hours tuition

    Course Tutors:

    Juliet Steyn PhD is a cultural historian. She is interested in the workings of cultural institutions and in the formation of the subject and identity. She has published widely on art and cultural criticism focusing on art, the politics of memory and identity.

    Juliet was awarded a PhD in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Kent at Canterbury (1993) and an MA in the History of European Art (modern period) Courtauld Institute, University of London. Until 2013 she was Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Cultural Policy and Management at City University, London, teaching modules on Currents of Criticism and Post-Colonial Agendas.

    One session will be taught by art critic and curator Stella Santacatterina. Stella has a specialist interest in the The New Vision Group which was founded by artist Denis Bowen to promote international artists and abstract art. Stella is a contributor to Third Text, Art Monthly, Portfolio and Flash Art.

    The first course will run 26 February, 5, 12, 19 and 26 March 2015 from 6 to 7.30 pm.

    Booking information:

    Jenny Starr
    Tel: +44 (0)207 749 1247
    Email: jstarr@iniva.org

  • Art to the Streets of East London

    Lerato Shadi, Makhuba, performance/installation, 2014. Photo by Erik Dettwiler
    Lerato Shadi, Makhuba, performance/installation, 2014. Photo by Erik Dettwiler

    Over the years artists have been invited to ‘speak to the street’ and following a 2013 ROSL Visual Arts residency at Hospitalfield Arts, artist Lerato Shadi presents Makhuba, a new work to be created over six days from 9 – 16 December. Thereafter it will remain as a trace of her daily actions.Lerato Shadi uses her own body to investigate ‘the politics of transformation, or transition, from absence to presence, subject to object, inclusion, exclusion and vice versa‘. Makhuba is a companion piece to a work performed in Berlin and Johannesburg in 2012, Seipone, where she wrote about her past, and on alternate days she created and erased words. Her new work will focus on the future. She will conjure a future for herself connected to society, placing herself in the world. She will again write and erase.

    Performance for this artist is a journey for herself as much as for those watching. Lerato Shadi explores assumptions about the (black) female body and how performance creates a stage to make the body both visible and invisible. Using time, repetitive actions as well as stillness, she questions ‘How does one create oneself?’. Seipone, meaning mirror in Tswana, reflected on whether you can lose your past and who is in charge of one’s own history. Makhuba, translated as ‘to wave/paddle’, will question whether one can project a different future for oneself, and how in our imaginations we all live very different lives.

    Shadi will undertake a performance in Rivington Place’s large window (on Rivington Street). She will write and erase on alternate days over six days from 9 until 16 December, and thereafter her actions will remain as a trace until 4 January 2015.

    Live: 9-16 December 2014

    Installation: until 4 January 2015
    Iniva, Rivington Place’s street facing window
    Live: 9-16 December 2014
    Live performance: Monday – Friday, 10am – 4pm
    Installation: until 4 January 2015 visible from Rivington Street
    Christmas closure: 24 December 2014 – 2 January 2015
    Venue: Iniva, Rivington Place, Rivington Street facing window
    London, EC2A 3BA
    Rivington Place is open:
    Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, 11am – 6pm
    Late Thursdays: 11am – 9pm
    Saturday: 12noon – 6pm

    Tubes: Old Street/Liverpool Street/Shoreditch High Street
    Rivington Place is fully accessible, for parking & wheelchair facilities call +44 (0)20 7749 1240

  • Issa Samb: From the Ethics of Acting to the Empire Without Signs

    Issa Samb. Photograph: Christa Holka
    Issa Samb. Photograph: Christa Holka

    Issa Samb was born 1945 in Dakar (Senegal), and lives and works in Dakar.

    “Samb is considered a total artist. His practice ranges from acting – for both theatre and cinema – writing (poetry, essays, novels), installing, performing, painting and sculpting.

    The only media that he has not explored so far is photography, maybe because of his persistent aversion to technology. Except for the radio, Samb does not use what he calls modern technological devices that according to him kill the magic of human interaction. So when you want to talk to him, you go to see him. When you want him to read a paper, you print it and bring it to him; or even preferable, you write to him by hand.”

    The Institute of International Visual Arts (Iniva) is currently presenting the first solo exhibition of Samb’s work in the UK. Issa Samb: From the Ethics of Acting to the Empire Without Signs is curated by Koyo Kouoh of Raw Material Company. Kouoh, quoted here, has worked closely with the artist on several projects and curates this exhibition of Samb’s work which provides a unique opportunity to experience his sculptural and graphic works and consider these in relation to his live actions with which they are intimately linked.

    The exhibition also focuses on Samb’s collaboration with French artist Jean Michel Bruyère which extends from their friendship that has continued over several years both in Europe and in Africa.

    This exhibition follows a research trip to Samb’s atelier in Dakar in September 2013, and builds on the conversations that took place with the artist and the curator at that time.

    The project forms part of Practice International, an EU-supported project that explores the term ‘international’ through the work of contemporary artists and in relation to the politics of globalisation.

    Issa Samb: From the Ethics of Acting to the Empire Without Signs is at Iniva, Rivington Place EC2A 3BA until 26 July.  www.practiceinternational.org