Beginning in 1948, hundreds of thousands of subjects from Britain's former empire came to the United Kingdom to help the nation rebuild itself after the ravages of World War II. Many of these immigrants -- who hailed from India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Kenya, Australia, Jamaica and Trinidad and other former colonies -- stayed on, changing forever the racial landscape of the British population. Yet, for many years this profound change was largely ignored or dismissed -- prompting Paul Gilroy to note in his study of post-war British culture that "there ain't no black in the Union Jack."
Works by three English artists who have worked to "erase this erasure" are featured in "The Unmapped Body: Three Black British Artists," an exhibit that will be on view Oct. 13-Jan. 3 at the Yale University Art Gallery. The show, a collaboration between the gallery and the Yale Center for British Art, was organized by Daphne A. Deeds, curator of exhibitions and programs at the Yale Art Gallery.
The three artists represented in "The Unmapped Body" are Sonia Boyce, Sutapa Biswas and Keith Piper. All three artists are the children of immigrants: Boyce's parents came from Barbados and Guyana; Piper's family hailed from Antigua and Montserrat; and Biswas was born in Santinekethan, India, and moved to London at age 3. All three received training in noted British institutes of art.
Sonia Boyce. The works by Boyce in "The Unmapped Body" are very different in both medium and thematic concern. They include some of her early drawings and paintings, which explored issues of gender as they portrayed the lives of Afro-Caribbean women in Britain. Also featured is "Do You Want to Touch?" -- an arrangement of 30 pieces of "black" hair, some gathered from Afro-Caribbean hairdressers and some synthetic. "How can one tell what is really 'black' and what is only passing as 'black'?" writes Ian Baucom, a Duke University professor and scholar of black British cultural studies, in the exhibition catalogue. "The point, of course, is that you can't, that, as is so often the case, the real and the counterfeit trade places with one another."
The hair theme continues with "Afro Rug," a six-foot square of sewn-together Afro wigs. Another work, titled "Coloured," is created from 80 brightly colored rectangles bearing hand-cut words, including many referring to hair ("curly perm," "kinky," "roots," etc.) The Afro hairstyle and the ways it has been used as a signifier of racial identity is also a theme in Boyce's "I Want To See It," a video of twin Afro-Caribbean brothers reacting to the artist's instructions to "twirl," "wiggle," "spin" and "chew" among other things.
Sutapa Biswas. While still a student, Biswas' paintings and mixed-media works were included in major group exhibitions that "sought to map the state of contemporary art and in particular the position of the Afro/Asian artist within, or against, that state," according to Michael Walsh of the Leeds City Art Gallery. Biswas has since turned to photography, through which she continues to explore the intertwining history of British and Indian culture.
Among Biswas' works on display in "The Unmapped Body" are "Frieze," a series of 40 black-and-white photographs of an Indian woman with two children standing in the water at the beach. Biswas made the piece after her first journey to India since her family's emigration 21 years earlier. Also on view will be "Scarred Surfaces," an image of two clasped hands reoriented at different angles over five large-scale photographs, and "Untitled," a seven-minute video of a blonde woman sitting at a kitchen table facing the viewer and silently disintegrating into tears.
Keith Piper. Described as the most political of the three artists in "The Unmapped Body," Piper was one of the artists who helped found the "Pan-Afrikan Connection," later known as the "BLK Art Group," which mounted shows for artists interested in exploring a self-consciously black, black British or black diaspora aesthetic. Piper began his career by juxtaposing text and images in large-scale paintings and collages such as "The Body Politic, Body Type One and Two." Eventually, however, he turned to computer-based media.
Piper's current installations explore racial history, bigotry and politics through a collage of painting, photography, sculpture and music that individual viewers can experience on their own terms by pointing and clicking. In "The Unmapped Body," Piper will be represented by "Message Carrier," which includes a table, chair, lamp, computer pad and large video screen with CD-ROM images projected onto a 10-foot wall accompanied by low-level sound. While one individual controls the computer pad, the piece -- which lasts 10 to 30 minutes or longer depending on the choices the viewer selects -- can be watched by several individuals at the same time.
Special programs. Boyce, Biswas and Piper will talk about issues in contemporary art in "A Conversation," to be held 10 a.m.-noon on Saturday, Oct. 17, in the Yale Art Gallery. Also taking part in the program, which will be moderated by Hazel Carby, chair of African and African-American studies, will be Rachel Berwick, critic of sculpture; Edgar Heap-of-birds, visiting artist; and Sarah Oppenheimer, graduate student. The event is free and open to the public.
Other talks and a series of contemporary British films will also be presented in conjunction with "The Unmapped Body: Three Black British Artists." Information about these programs will appear in future issues of the Yale Bulletin & Calendar.
The Yale University Art Gallery, located at the corner of Chapel and York streets, is open to the public free of charge 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and 1-6 p.m. on Sunday. A museum entrance for persons using wheelchairs is located at 201 York St.; call 432-0606 for further information about access. For general information, call 432-0600.