On the Bright Side of Life at Künstlerhaus Bethanien,
Berlin, Germany.
British
Contemporary Photography
October 18th till November 23rd
1997
At
the Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, Oranienstrsße 25, 10999,
Berlin and the Kunstamt Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Mariannenplatz 2,
10997, Berlin
Every day 12 am-6.30pm
Faisal Abdu’Allah - Keith Arnatt - Zarina Bhimji -
Helen Chadwick - Calum Colvin - Susan Derges - John Duncan - Anna
Fox - Colin Grey - Anthony Haughey - Sarah Jones - John Kippin - Karen Knorr
- Clive Landen - Rut Blees Luxenburg - Mari Mahr -
Ron O’Donnell - Martin Parr - Keith Piper - Ingrid Pollard
- Sophy Rickett - Paul Seawright -
Victor Sloan - Jem Southam - Nick Waplington - Boyd Webb
The exhibition On the Bright Side of Life -
BRITISH CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY was put together by the
Arbeitsgruppe Fotografie (Working Group for Photography) of the Neue
Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (New Society for Visual Arts) in
Berlin. It is the first time that British photography has been shown
in such depth and with such a range of different participating
artists.
However, On the Bright Side of Life is not
just a compilation of the last two decades of British photo history.
Rather this exhibition can be seen as the result of our German view
of the vibrancy and diversity to be found in British photography.
From this variety we decided to choose the projects that in some way
dealt with British society. Accordingly, the very different points
of view by the twenty-six invited artists combine to a multifaceted
image of Great Britain. In their photographic projects these artists
are concerned with the vital problems of a post-industrial nation:
the growing alienation between humankind and ‘nature’, as well as
the destructive potential of an unhindered consumer society for its
environment; the expanding gap between the rich and the poor; the
developing brutality of the society and sexual violence; the
disturbed relationship with death; the new possibilities and dangers
of gene technology; the high tension of society encompassing several
ethnic groups as a heritage of its colonial past and the conflict in
Northern Ireland, are the themes for some of the work in this
exhibition.
With our selection we also wanted to demonstrate the
range of aesthetic and theoretical approaches towards photography in
Great Britain. All the photography in this exhibition is of a recent
date. Some of the invited artists have been working with the medium
of photography since the seventies or eighties, and have developed
or decisively shaped the different styles prevalent in British
photography. But we also have invited ‘newcomers’ who add new
impulses and already receive international recognition. This way the
work of the teacher and student generations are seen in dialogue
with each other.
Quite a few of the images in this exhibition have an
impressive beauty, and only on closer investigation do they reveal
the traces of a fight about life and death. Great Britain as a
nation comes under merciless scrutiny by the photographers, but
their photographs are very attractive to the eye. The pictures’
details are very subtle. This subtlety is even found in the work
which, by its overwhelming richness of information, seems to create
a small microcosm of its own - a fantasy world, which nevertheless
does not lose touch with reality exactly because it contains a
carefully ‘jumble’ of everyday objects. Violence is never shown
directly, but it looms menacingly in the background. In this
exhibition clever and serene compositions and imaginative tableaux
are side by side with images of harsh realism. This combines into a
mixture of understatement, black humour and exuberant, absurd
unruliness, as in the comedies of the Monty Python group. A certain
optimistic, refined irony, which is often said to be the domain of
the ‘British mentality’, is discernable in the selected works,
despite their radical, and often very brutal, content. Thus Brian,
who, in the last scene of Monty Python’s Life of Brian, is
crucified since he stepped in for Jesus, arrives at the musical
conclusion: “Always look on the bright side of life”.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with
essays by David A. Bailey, David Chandler, David A. Mellor, Brett
Rogers and Val Williams, as well as colour reproductions of the
artists’ work in the exhibition.
Neue Gesellschaft für bildende
Kunst e.V Oranienstraße 25 - 10999 Berlin
030-616 513 0
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