Black artists take Britain’s pulse – and pose as Grace Jones: Untitled at Kettle’s Yard review

Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge
Colonialism, sexuality and singers from the 70s and 80s are among the subjects in a show in which 10 artists don’t so much explore Black British identity as question our era

Six funk, soul and dance record covers by Black singers from the 70s and 80s are displayed in a grid on a wall at Kettle’s Yard. Next to them is a video installation showing the artist Harold Offeh in a domestic setting – an attic, a hallway, a bathroom – recreating the theatrical poses of the sleeve photographs as music plays. He transitions from Melba Moore’s one hand on the hip to Gloria Scott’s two hands cradling each side of the face.

For Grace Jones’s Island Life, Offeh oils himself in preparation to hold the iconic arabesque pose, but he shakes and grapples with the statuesque stretch, losing his balance. Though it subtly comments on the construction of queer, racialised and gendered bodies in pop cultural imagery, Offeh’s Covers Playlist is one of the more playful works in the gallery’s group show Untitled: art on the conditions of our time.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3icIMgU