Cosmo Whyte: The Fire Next Time

Produced for solo exhibition: Beneath Its Tongue, The Fish Rolls The Hook To Sharpen Its Cadence

Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia (MoCA GA)

Nov 19, 2019 - Jan 11, 2020

KOSMO VAJT: Sledeći put - vatra

Proizvedeno za samostalnu izložbu: Ispod svog jezika, riba kotrlja udicu da izoštri svoj ritam

Muzej savremene umetnosti Džordžije (MoCA GA)

19. novembar 2019. – 11. januar 2020.

The Fire Next Time_Whyte_2019.jpg

Title: The Fire Next Time
Material: Nickel Plated Steel Ball Chain Curtain
Dimensions: 130" x 122"
Year: 2019

Review by TK Smith for ARTSATL.

Produced by Cosmo Whyte, Joshua Nierodzinski, Jelena Prljević, Natasa Prljević, David Popa, and Albert Popa.

HEKLER has collaboratively designed and fabricated a new artwork with Cosmo Whyte for his upcoming solo exhibition, Beneath Its Tongue, The Fish Rolls The Hook To Sharpen Its Cadence, for the Working Artist Project at the Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia (MoCA GA).

The Fire Next Time references an archival image of the Brixton Riots in London originally photographed by the Manchester Daily Express in April 1981. The image transferred onto a 12' x 11' metal beaded curtain is spliced with yellow brass beads that float across the scene as golden burning embers. 

This is the first in a new series of works, literally and figuratively positioning archival images as thresholds within an architectural space that the viewer must breach. Artist was specifically drawn to the 1981 race riots of Brixton due to widely varying interpretations of the factors and events that led to the riot. Brixton as a location is pivotal to the West Indian narrative in England. For many disenfranchised, second generation, West Indian immigrants the riot was an articulation of their contentious relationship to a motherland that was struggling to embrace them.  There is an intentional ambiguity to the image in hopes that the depiction of the riot can transcend the bounders of Brixton and speak to the larger phenomena of civil unrest.  

“A riot is the language of the unheard”- Martin Luther King 

Naslov: Sledeći put - vatra
Materijal: niklovana čelična kuglasta lančana zavesa
Dimenzije: 330 cm x 310
Godina: 2019

Recenzija TK Smita za ARTSATL.

Producirali Kosmo Vajt, Džošua Nierodžinski, Jelena Prljević, Nataša Prljević, David Popa i Albert Popa.

HEKLER je u saradnji sa Kosmo Vajtom dizajnirao i izradio nov umetnički rad za njegovu predstojeću samostalnu izložbu Ispod svog jezika, riba kotrlja udicu da izoštri svoj ritam, za Working Artist Project u Muzeju savremene umetnosti Džordžije (MoCA GA).

Sledeći put - vatra upućuje na arhivsku sliku Brikstonskih nereda u Londonu koju je prvobitno fotografisao Mančester Dejli Ekspres u aprilu 1981. Slika preneta na zavesu od metalnih perli dimenzija 12 x 11 stopa spojena je žutim mesinganim perlama koje lebde preko scene kao zlatni žar koji gori.

Ovo je prvi u novoj seriji radova, koji bukvalno i figurativno pozicioniraju arhivske slike kao pragove unutar arhitektonskog prostora koje posmatrač/ica mora da pređe. Umetnika su posebno privukli rasni neredi u Brikstonu 1981. zbog veoma različitih tumačenja faktora i događaja koji su do njih doveli. Brikston kao lokacija je ključna za zapadnoindijski narativ u Engleskoj. Za mnoge obespravljene, drugu generaciju zapadnoindijskih imigranata, pobuna je bila artikulacija njihovog spornog odnosa prema matici koja se borila da ih prigrli. Na slici postoji namerna dvosmislenost u nadi da bi prikaz nereda mogao da prevaziđe granice Brikstona i da govori o većim pojavama građanskih nemira.

„Nemiri su jezik nesaslušanih“ – Martin Luter King