| Description |
The Bluecoat is responding to the question ‘Who do you think you are? - the theme of LOOK/13 – with an exhibition featuring work examining constructions of personal and collective identity in the contemporary Arab world.
Presented as part of the Liverpool Arab Art Festival, the exhibition title ‘I exist (in some way)’ is inspired by celebrated Syrian photographer Issa Touma. When asked recently if his work was political, he replied ‘Everything in the Middle East can be political if you have censorship. They do not like the freedom I have, but they also do not have much choice. I exist in some way. They cannot cancel me, so they need to accept me’.
Touma’s insistence on being is infused with ambiguity and uncertainty. If identity is not fixed in time and place, then what ‘ways’ of being are possible? The artists in the exhibition, from differing backgrounds and working in a range of locations, explore this through a range of photographic practices.
Also as of Look/13, the Bluecoat is exhibiting classic works by two of the founding fathers of photography; August Sander (1876 – 1964) and Weegee (1899 – 1968). Despite his precise methods, Sander created extraordinarily sensitive portraits of German society in the 1920s and 30s. Prolific newspaper photographer Arthur Fellig, nicknamed Weegee, is known for photographs of 1930s and 40s New York. A stark counterpoint to the American Dream, his work had a formative influence on the nation's image of itself.
Exhibitions Curator at the Bluecoat, Sara-Jayne Parsons said: “For LOOK/13 we are featuring a range of photographic talent in the galleries, from the classic, historic works for Sander and Weegee to exciting emerging international artists such as George Awde and Nathalie Kardjiane who have never shown their work in the UK before. We’ve approached the festival theme with a strong desire to showcase diversity and individuality. Hopefully visitors to the galleries will be inspired to think about how they would photograph their responses to the question “Who do you think you are?” |