London’s Tate Modern currently has an exhibition that attempts to frame these questions about citizenship and to help visitors to come to their own conclusions. The citizenship exhibition is taking place in one of the Tate’s main galleries, which Digital Journal’s London based reporter attended recently. The article is one of three examining conceptual art. The second article considers the off-beat art of Joseph Beuys, and lets the reader answer the question as to whether Beuys’ work was Utopian drivel or full of remarkable foresight? The third article takes a gentle meander through some key artworks on display in the gallery.
The focus of the people-centric art and photography running at Tate Modern is ‘global communities and critical citizenship.’
Most striking are Sue Williamson’s images called “A Few South Africans”, which deal with women who fought for equality during the apartheid era. The images date from 1983.
This first picture is of a woman without a name, simply referred to as Case 6831/21. It represents a woman with no legal rights, known simply by a case number.
Sue Williamson was born in Litchfield, England in 1941. Her family immigrated to South Africa in 1948. Here is here image of Charlotte Motsoaledi, an activist.
Williamson studied at the Art Students’ League in New York from 1963-65. Here is her image of Amina Cachalia.
Cachalia was a longtime friend and ally of former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela.
Made at a time when South Africa was still firmly in the grip of apartheid, A Few South Africans (1983-7) was a series which attempted to make visible the history of women, mostly unsung individuals.
Perhaps most famous of all, Williamson’s portrait of Winnie Mandela.
Crossing to Asia, the exhibition features some impressive photographs by Sheba Chhachhi about women in India.
Sheba Chhachhi’s collection is called Seven Lives and a Dream 1990–91.
The pictures bring together photographs of Indian women on protests with staged portraits of seven individuals.
Other aspects of citizenship are displayed through videos.
The video works include Artur Zmijewski’s footage of public protests focuses not only on those seeking freedoms but also on the crowd behaviour of extreme right wing movements.
Also of interest is Theaster Gates’ Civil Tapestry 4 2011. This work alludes to the fire hoses turned upon young black school children marching peacefully in Alabama in 1963.
Many of the works in the exhibition focus on the struggles of people in turbulent times. For example, Richard Hamilton’s ‘The Prisoner’, which deals with the paramilitary war in Northern Ireland during the 1970s and 1980s. Richard Hamilton’s depiction of a prisoner’s is focused on a 1980s ‘no wash’ protest.
The most recent work on display is by social activist and artist Andrea Bowers, called ‘The Workers Maypole.’ It was made in 2015.
Overall, Tate Modern has done a good job in representing the idea of global citizenship, and how it is represented at different times in different places.
