Tag: galleries

Adolescent Wonderland by Naomi Hobson (Horniman Museum)

14.06.2024

https://www.horniman.ac.uk/event/adolescent-wonderland

Honestly, going to Adolescent Wonderland in the Horniman museum was one of the most wonderful experiences that I have ever had in museums and art galleries. Everything that I find in museums was there: inspiration, community, culture, knowledge, stimulation, enjoyment. A new world to discover.

My love of the museum came to me late in life. We did not go as children. Our culture was Hindi movies and songs and family visits. And the other preoccupation which took up all the time was reading. It was only when I was a mature student that I would go into the free museums around London and be surrounded by learning, culture and knowledge that I grew to love them. Other cultures. Other worlds apart from my own. Travel back into time and prehistory. The concrete things of the cultures and worlds that I had read about in books: the picture and reality to the stories.

What we got with the visit to Adolescent Wonderland was the artist herself, Naomi, accompanied by her husband. And they gave us a personal tour of the artworks. It was an enthralling expedition into the life of her community.

In the photographs, Naomi had worked with the young people of the First Nations to present them as the future and to tell their own stories. She wanted to do something different from the anthropological studies of the people through a white lens where they were presented as being part of prehistory rather than the present and the future. This was photography that was documenting the reality of the community and its young people rather than a series of stereotypes.

Someone with a camera. An artist. That was trying to change the world. For her community. To give them recognition. To allow them to express themselves. To give them a voice and an identity. Someone that was trying to change the world for the community.

Here are some of my favourite photographs from the collection with some personal comments:

‘The Good Sister’

Two kids, sitting on a bicycle. The older girl is snapping herself and her sibling with a smartphone. Behind her, her little sister stands on the bike in a rabbit mask with a cape. She is holding her fingers in the ‘V’ sign for victory.

This image is definitely cute and charming. But it is also more than that. Because this moment from the life, this casual happening in the day, becomes elevated into the mission of the photography exhibit. It is the good sister that is Naomi photographing herself and the younger generation so that they have recognition in this world. So they form part of modernity.

It is not the surroundings that are important. They are in black and white – because they show the emergence of the people from the past. And just like all the kids nowadays, these kids have their bicycles, their fancy dress and their smartphones. They are part of the digital community wherever they are. They are a part of modernity – no different from anyone else.

The sense of connection that is in this photograph is what is its biggest appeal. That sisterly love. That work on the project of photography to represent the self – not the isolated self of the Western world. The sense of self that is the community sense of self. For us and by us.

And, then there is the ‘V’ sign for Victory – this is a fight for representation. The dream of triumph for the community.

‘Daley’s Bike’

This photograph of Kayla posing next to a bike she borrowed is a stunning photograph from her furry pink coat to the beauty of design in the bicycle, to the gorgeous striped trousers that Kayla is wearing. She stands nonchalantly, looking away.

What I liked about this photograph was that it is real diversity and inclusion. The Western fashion world and the Western Media pretend that they are diverse and inclusive. They are not. This is someone that is real posing confidently like a fashion model. And she is real. She is not photoshopped. She hasn’t had someone telling her what to wear or do. She is real. And that is what is beautiful about this photograph. It is her vision of who she is through her clothes. It is her taste. It is her pose. It is how she wants to look. She is not copying anyone. It is a photograph of authenticity and diversity. The beauty of diversity. A taste of what that could look like without the endless, tireless peddling of the same within Western ‘culture’ and ‘taste’.

The colours in the striped trousers match the colours of the wheels of the bike: the body is movement, revolution.

‘OMG’

A young woman is struggling under the weight of a massive pink flamingo float which she is taking to Coen river barefoot. Her eyes are closed. The head of the flamingo is facing her and is above her head. She is draped in a towel.

The body of the woman and the massive pink float make a new body. It is almost a merging of the human with not only the animal in the bird representation, but also plastic, the wonder substance of modernity. Perhaps it is a merging of the human body with the system of the sign, the stuff of representation. And representation is heavy.

The woman is struggling under the heaviness of representation and the modern symbolic system, but she still carries on barefoot. It is a striking image of resilience, the strength of the people and its young. Their adaptability and appropriation of the world outside and their use of it in their own communities even given the iniquities of history and what that symbolic system did to them and the people.

‘Mr Cat Lover’

A man stands in a window frame with a cat. He is at the open window to the right. On his left is a closed window with a reflection of the outside world.

Naomi explained what she wanted to do with this photograph. She wanted to show that these are ordinary people like everywhere else in the world. People with affections and love for the animals. Nice people. People with humanity and emotions.

But I believe there is something else here. With the closed, reflected window to the left, we get an implicit comparison with what is happening with the cat in the open window. The closed window mirrors a humanless world with an empty car outside. The external world. It is inside the open window that there is life and the love of life, humans and humanity.

The essence of the image is when the figure with the cat comes out of the open window into the humanless world to make connections with the viewer in that world. The viewer that he has never had intercourse with. The unknown world of other people. Because, in a sense, they who are unknown are not there. Because to be human is to communicate somehow, anyhow. To communicate love above all. And so, he comes into the window and he moves towards us that do not know him to form a knowledge of knowing between us. A beautiful photograph of a beautiful thought.

Design Discoveries: Towards a DESIGN MUSEUM JAPAN

Japan House

15 May 2024 – 8 September 2024

14.06.2024

Incredibly, for a country associated with everything that is hi-tech, Japan does not have its own museum of design. At Japan House, the Design Discoveries exhibition puts together seven major designers to consider what they would contribute in the form of design treasures to such a museum. We get a chance to see the rich diversity of Japanese design and some of the unique and inspirational design stories in the land of the rising sun.

I went to this exhibition after my first visit to the Design Museum here in London. I realised that I needed to learn more about this subject, design. Design is all around us. I often wonder to myself if I can ever extract myself from everything that is human made and see real wilderness. The reality is that everything around us – especially in London – is designed. Even when you are in the parks, the parks have been sculpted to look like what they look like. And this exhibition was an illuminating look into the nature of design creativity, how it depends on a historical and geographic context and a rich history of tradition.

Here are the design treasures and my personal comments on each of the exhibitions:

Haburagin, the Clothing of the Noro Priestesses: Design to Protect the Wearer by Morinaga Kunihiko, Fashion Designer

Worn over 500 years ago, these garments enable spiritual safety for the wearer and the community. The stitching keeps out evil spirits. This exhibit was particularly fascinating. Because protection is what coordinates, what is at the basis of our human relationships. I was talking about this with one my best friends. Women want a man that protects them. Men want a woman that gives them protection from the world. Protection is the basic need of humankind. And, I am named after protection: Sunil Dutt who saved the actress Nargis from the fire that broke out on the set of the film ‘Mother India’, a film itself made to protect the honour of India from attacks from the West.

The spirituality of fashion design, fashion built for a community and its spiritual needs was an insight into a world where clothes are not about looking good, but which protect the mind and the self. A psychology of safety that you wear to enable mental functioning and health.

But what is sad about this garments is the reality behind the design: that sometimes the evil spirits creep in and then you no longer have protection.

The premise behind this design may seem archaic, but it continues into the present. I am partially Hindu and my background is that we pray to the Mother Goddess, the warrior, to protect us. And I wear a bracelet on my hand of Bastet with her cats, because she protects and brings good health.

This design is a treasure because it shows that what is important to humans from a design point of view is the fulfilment of of deep-rooted psychological needs such as security and wellbeing, mental health.

Whip Tops and Tops Inspired by Them: Toys as Our First Contact with Design by Tsujikawa Koichiro, Film Director

Here’s what the exhibition notes say:

‘Toys nurture the five senses and the child’s primal desires to touch, see and hear. They embody design in its most primitive form’.

There is a mystical property to the spinning tops because their motion mirrors the human life cycle. They remind us of death when they stop spinning.

What intrigued me about the spinning tops exhibition in terms of design is how rich, colourful and beautiful design is when adults are designing things for children. Because then, the love for design becomes one with the love of children. Adults are trying to initiate children into the world of the human imagination and they present everything that is best about it. And, the conscientious adult – like the designer of these spinning tops – does not stint with knowledge and the experience of life. The design that is made for children is to educate them into the passage and the meanings of life, each of its different stages. It is the greatest moment of sharing in culture: when you are trying to mould the mind of the inexperienced through your own experience. This is why these spinning tops – and design for children – is always so beautiful. The meaning of our human existence is to share our knowledge, our appreciation of beauty, our experience with the future and the next generation.

Jōmon Village Design: Design Found in 10,000-year-old Living Spaces by Tane Tsuyoshi, Architect

‘The Jōmon people designed based on a ring system. The structure of village society was a ring. For 800 years, others joined this ring and belonged to the ring’.

‘Houses were arranged in a circle with the entrances facing the centre. At the centre, there was a ring of stones. This central ring was a place where the living paid their respects to and mourned the dead’.

In my view, the elemental social unit of gathering and community is the ring. With the discovery of fire, the original human group would have ranged themselves in a circle around the fire. This is the only way of maximising the warmth of the flames. This ring design of the Jōmon people embodies the basic unit of organisation.

In our society, where there is no longer eye contact, much face to face interaction, where we sit or stand for hours by ourselves in an unnatural state of affairs, the ring stands for community, integration, oneness. It is a beautiful ideal that we have lost: that connection of human to human that is the secret longing of every heart that dreams for something better than what we have now.

This design is a treasure because it speaks to a fundamental human need for connection and community. It is a reminder of what we have lost in the modern age.

State-of-the-Art 3D Sportswear: Inspired by a Lantern Festival in Toyama by Sudō Reiko, Textile Designer

Before computers, there were humans. And what humans have, compared to a computer, are traditions, spirituality and the brilliance and resourcefulness of their brains. Culture.

Before computer-aided design, there was the festival where the designer made bamboo frames which transformed two dimensional drawings into three dimensional lanterns. And it was because of that that he was able to make three dimensional garments such as 3D-cut woven skiwear in the 1970s..

This design story resonated with me deeply because it shows the resourcefulness of creativity, the inspiration from tradition that prompts innovation. Creativity can be at its best when you are importing or transferring one design tradition into an innovation for another problem.

And, myself, I find constant inspiration from religion. When I was a child, my mother got me, out of everyone, to take the incense and burn it before the mother goddess, the warrior, in the prayer rituals of the house. Bowing my head and holding my hands joined together before her. We asked for her protection. And that moment comes backs to me over and over again and it has become one of the powerful inspirations for creativity and life. The work for the goddess, the work for the festival, the work for the people.

A design treasure because love is work and work is love.