Cathy's Art Diary

Bright exhibition for this year's Royal Academy’s Summer show. There seemed to be lots of colour in this year’s show but there were few works that leapt out to grab my attention. Maybe I’ve just been too often and it’s getting a bit samey. Looking through my notes I am struggling   to remember many of the works I’d marked as memorable. I thought Yinka Shonibare had some interesting things to say in his curation but at times if felt a bit woke. I did like the small show within the show of work by Bill Taylor, who was born a slave in 1854 and didn’t stat art until he was 85. It was good to see a work carving prison soap again by Lee Cutter who started doing art when he was in a young offenders’ institution as well as two large, jolly Humphrey Ocean duck pictures. Leigh Bank’s “Last Orders” putting dead pop stars in place of the disciples as the Last Supper was a bit naff but fun and Catherine James “At Home”, a picture of a Dutch dolls house made in blue and white tiles appeal...

Moving video installation at the Towner Gallery looking at man’s relationship with the sea, and its role in the history of slavery, migration, trade, and conflict. Over three large screens Akomfrah used a mix of footage from the BBC Natural History Unit, archive film and newly filmed material to contrast the beauty of the marine world and the destruction of animal and human life at sea and on the coastline. There were challenging recreated images of the slave trade but their power was lessened by the knowledge that the scenes were staged. More visceral was archive footage of polar bears being killed which were stark and real. The film was long at 48 minutes but mesmerising and well worth spending the time to watch it. Closed 26 September 2021

Wonderful video installation at the Imperial War Museum by John Akomfrah representing the Africans who fought and took part in the First World War. Shown over three screens it mixed archive material and a newly shot narrative featuring a variety of the soldiers often show against a desert like backdrop surrounded by the flags of the nations involved. It memorialised both soldiers and porters. I’m going to have my usual video moan in that this work was 75 minutes long! A bit longer than you want to spend on one piece in an exhibition. However as this was so lovely I would like to go back and watch the whole thing. It would really help to advertise the start times so you could watch it properly from beginning to end rather than dipping in in the middle which I found a bit confusing, Closes on 31 March 2018

Fascinating video installation by John Akomfrah at Tate Britain examining the life of social commentator Stuart Hall. Displayed on three screens it looked at his life and views mixing his own words from interviews with contemporary film and pieces of poetry. I had not come across Stuart Hall before but that didn’t matter looking at any life in this way was really interesting. I did make me want to find out more. I loved the way it was punctuated by photographs of him and he didn’t seem to change. I must admit we stayed into the this on the promise of somewhere to sit down for a while but were mesmerised by it and had to be thrown out before the end.