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The Sentinel: Let's finish the job and create an all-singing Cultural Quarter
IT IS not every day that a local artist gets his work exhibited in one of London’s most prestigious galleries. It is even rarer for this accolade to be given to someone who only a year ago graduated from Staffordshire University.
It seems almost impossible that this has happened to someone who arrived in this country fleeing the persecution of Saddam Hussein only about a decade ago.
However, this is just what has happened to fine art graduate Behjat Omer Abdulla, pictured. His work has been chosen for an exhibition in The Hayward Gallery in the South Bank Arts complex.
This is at the centre of London’s artistic establishment. Make no mistake; this exhibition is a hugely prestigious coup for any artist to have achieved.
I have seen Behjat’s work, both at his degree show and also at Broad Street’s Airspace Gallery. I am delighted that it has been chosen for national exhibition, but I am not surprised.
He draws with a creative passion that brings to life the beauty of his subjects and the horror of the treatment that he knows many of them have received.
His graphite portraits are like ID cards and conjure the strength of his subjects as well as the evil of the police state. I hope that his work will go far, but that he will remain based in the city.
Behjat’s success demonstrates again the ability for our fine artists to lead the re-invention of the city. We were once famous worldwide for the creativity of our ceramic designs and the beauty of our hand crafted ware.
We are lucky to have clusters of artists, mainly graduates from the local universities, who continue to create and exhibit their work locally. Airspace Gallery puts on many groundbreaking shows every year on a shoestring.
The Burslem School of Art is a fabulous display area that showcases local talent. However, local policy makers don’t give the sort of credit or support to local artists that even the distant grandees of the Hayward Gallery know they deserve.
Behjat’s studio is in the Cultural Quarter. This is perhaps the city’s greatest unfinished monument. Dropped in terror by politicians following the scoffing of cynics and the overspending of project managers, this ambitious attempt to put creativity at the heart of the city was one of the bravest regeneration ideas that we have ever had.
Sadly, it never got beyond the pedestrianisation of Picadilly or the creation of two fabulous venues. Policy makers failed to recognise that whilst venues and infrastructure are important, it is artists, not buildings, that create culture.
Behjat’s success should remind us of the importance of completing this brave vision.
Luckily, the time has never been more opportune to complete the human development of the Cultural Quarter.
You see, in comparison to the huge cost of building the venues, this part of the project costs peanuts. Making the Cultural Quarter sing, paint and dance is still affordable. Giving it the energy of resident artists living above independent shops and galleries is still feasible. Making it a destination for local people in search of inspiration is within our reach.
Making it a natural stopping place on a thinking person’s holiday is possible.
We now need thinking, imagination and bravery. The opening of the refurbished Mitchell Memorial Theatre should breathe new life and youth into the area. Alongside that I would like to see a group thinking of ways to fill the Quarter with artists and fun. Artists can be trusted to come up with cheap, creative and novel ways of doing things.
Let’s dust down the 15-year-old plans for the Cultural Quarter and give them, along with a modest amount of cash, to a group of our talented young artists to deliver.
I suspect that the nation will be surprised and delighted with the result.
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
by: Mike Wolfe
I have been working with the notion of identity for many years since I first found myself in a state of exile trying to gain recognition by the Immigration system in the UK. It has been over thirteen years since I left my native land, Kurdistan-Iraq.
I’ve often been asked for identity pictures for the various types of ID cards I was required to have and I now own a collection of “self-ID pictures”. My work developed directly from an investigation into the use of these ID cards, what they say about people’s origins, and how these people are ultimately presented at the end of the governmental process.
I try to question the effects and the outcomes of this systemic categorization. It is shocking to see how codes and numbers classify and shape us within a system that, to us, is almost invisible. It is quite surprising and rather fascinating to see that we expect ID photographs to be a true reflection of who we really are, when in fact they only represent a superficial side of our identity; our physical appearance. However, this process of categorisation extends beyond the Immigration services and other governmental departments. The desire to reduce a person to only their photographic image is widespread.
As a mixed media artist working mainly with drawing, photography, and video installation, I use my practise to listen to peoples’ stories and try to create a platform for debate around the issues raised. To me art questions who we are and how we place ourselves in the world. It is a way to be in touch with our responses to life and a way of speaking that allows viewers to translate, decode and change it to their own languages.
e-mail: baha.baha@hotmail.co.uk
Education:
2010 First Class Honours, BA-Fine Art in Staffordshire University. UK.
2010 Awarded the prize for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Fine Art. Staffordshire University.
2006-2007: ABC Level 1 Art design and Creative Studies Digital Imaging. S-O-T College, UK.
1991-1997: Diploma, Sulaimaniyah Institute of Fine Arts. Iraq.
Solo Shows:
2002 A Tribute To All Mothers, The potteries museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-On-Trent. UK
2002 Colour in my memory, Newcastle-U-Lyme, staffs. UK
1994 First solo exhibition, Sulaimaniyah, Iraq.
Group Exhibitions:
2011: “Factory Night”, National Garden Festival, S-O-T, UK
2011: “AVENUE OF PORTRAITS” Hayward Gallery, London, UK
2011: "anti curate" Midland Art Center, Birmingham, UK
2011: "KMQ" slideshow, airspace Gallery, S.O.T, UK
2011: "BE Festival" AE Harris, Birmingham, UK.
2011: "BE Festival" Midland Art Center, Birmingham, UK.
2011: "KISS ME QUICK" Harbour Arm Gallery, Margate, UK
2011: "Here Is My World" The Crocus Gallery, Nottingham, UK
2011: “DAT fest”, 100 Stories, Stoke-on-Trent, UK
2010: “Conjunction 2010”, airspace gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, UK
2010: Southgate Place, Bath, UK
2010: Black Country Creative Advantage, The Public, West Bromwich, UK
2010: “Derby Big Draw”, HUB, 48 St Peter’s Street, Derby, UK
2010: “Wirksworth Festival”, Newbridge Gallery, Wirksworth UK
2010: “A Familiar Face” – Stoke Town 2010, SHOP, UK
2010: “Amaze” Staffordshire University, S-O-T, UK
2010: “HEP”, Video installation, Iran
2009: “HEP”, Video installation, José Malhoa Museum, Portugal
2009: “World Domination 6”, Schloss Blumenthal, Germany
2009: “HEP”, Video installation, IM BANANAPARK, Berlin, Germany
2009: “HEP”, Video installation, Guildford Lane Gallery, Melbourne 300, Australia
2009: “Shifting Origin”, Art Waves, Nile Street Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent UK
2009: “Irresistible”, Staffordshire University, S-O-T, UK
2009: "Home" Burslem School of Art, Queen Street, Burslem, Stoke on Trent. UK
2009: “Oslo Open 2009”, Art film, Oslo, Norway
2008: “Bethesda Splendors”, Video installation, Bethesda Chapel, S-O- T, UK
2007: “Dishinit”, 404 Bowls with 101 People, New Vic Theatre, S-O-T, UK
2007: “Celebrating Sanctuary”, The Pierian Centre Bristol, UK
2007: “Artists Against Racism & Fascism”. Stoke-On-Trent, UK
2007: “The Commemoration of HALABJA Committee”, Manchester, UK
2006: “Straight from the Heart”, The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, S-O-T, UK
2006: “Second Kurdish Short Film Festival”, Red Cinema, Manchester, UK
2005: “Holocaust Exhibition”, New Vic Theatre. S-O-T. UK
2005: “Piconnectic”, Semi Gallery Staffordshire University, S-O-T, UK
2004: “Beyond Experience, Beyond Appearance”, New Vic Theatre, S-O-T, UK
2004: "Behind the veils", Elective Gallery, Staffordshire University, UK
2003: “Travelling Light”, Art Exchange, The Surface Gallery, Nottingham, UK
1997 Sulaimaniyah institute of fine Arts Gallery. Iraq
1996: “Diwar Band”, media gallery, Sulaimaniyah, Iraq
1996: University of Sulaimaniyah, Iraq
1995: Media Gallery in Iraq
1992: Museum & Art gallery of Sulaimaniyah. Iraq
Commissions and artistic experience:
2011: Kibblesworth Insider Art project, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
2011: Barefoot Doctors Summer School’, S-O-T, UK
2011: Curated ‘Kiss Me Quick ’, slideshow, airspace, S-O-N, UK
2011: Drawing Workshop, New Generation Space, S-O-T, UK
2011: 100 stories, Performance, S-O-T, UK
2010: Talk and drawing workshop, Staffordshire University, UK
2010: Conjunction ‘ESCAPE’ airspace Gallery, S-O-T, UK
2010: Documentary Film ‘Common Ground’ S-O-T, UK
2010: ‘Escape to the hidden garden’ land art drawing Workshop, S-O-T, UK
2010: Over the Bridge Night, Film projection, Stoke, UK
2009: Place Space & Identity 2, S-O-T, UK
TV Interview:
Kurdsat.tv, Heftenamey rwnakbiri 25-07-2011
Bibliography:
2011: ‘Invisible Man’ by: Paul Moore, Beyond Borders, July 2011
2011: ‘Let's finish the job and create an all-singing Cultural Quarter’ The Sentinel, by: Mike Wolfe, June 01, 2011
2011: Haftanna Magazine, www.cawder.org/chawder2/cawder/327/r1.pdf, June 2011
2011: Kurdistany Nwea, www.calameo.com/read/000163913bd2915b493fd, June 2011
