Exhibition Review: Nicola Green’s ‘In Seven Days’ (Originally published in Hard Magazine)
By Katy Gregory.
Sunday, April 28th, 2013.
‘Change, Day 4′ Nicola Green
The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool saw the first European solo exhibition of In Seven Days… by Nicola Green from 18th January to 14th April 2013. This series addresses the significance of what once seemed an impossible fete – the success of a mixed race candidate of black heritage, Barak Obama, running for president of the United States – a former slave-owning nation.
‘Struggle, Day 2′ Nicola Green
The British artist, Green, first encountered Obama on a trip in August 2008 and she made five more trips ending with Obama’s inauguration in January 2009. She studied the revolutionary story of his 2008 presidential campaign which resulted in his election as the first mixed-race president. She wanted to document the building anticipation and journey of hope that Obama inspired.
Green also contemplated what this might mean on a personal level for her two mixed-race children as well as for non-white people generally. Through her husband, Labour MP David Lammy, who went to Harvard with Obama, she was able to meet the man himself and he later sat for her portrait. She says “It seemed natural and important to me that I should make a portrait of Obama, not least because when I looked at my sons I saw his face in theirs, saw their hopes and their futures.”
The exhibition’s opening day was the day Obama was sworn in for a second term in office as well as the 45th Martin Luther King Day.
2500 photographs, various sketches and numerous conversations from her trips provided the primary material which would later inform her seven profound minimalist images featured in the exhibition. Green had her own struggle with the technically challenging silk screen prints machine in London which she used to produce the final 7 silk screens on. This is fitting considering the themes the series represents…
‘Sacrifice/Embrace, Day 6′ Nicola Green
Light, the first of seven images, represents day one in the seven day series. It includes a series of hands symbolising the Mexican wave, that Green herself witnessed in the stadium Obama accepted his nomination in. It explores the significance and power of hand gestures in our articulation of meaning. She says “It seemed to me the energy of the 70,000 people in that stadium reflected the energy and interest of people all around the world. I realised the portrait was bigger than a picture of just that one man. It was the story of all of us around the world and what his candidacy might mean for us.”
The second day is Struggle, which is made out of 24 carat gold, asking how we value ourselves; the third, Hope; the fourth, Change; the fifth, Fear, which explores the obstacles encountered by Obama; the sixth is Sacrifice/ Embrace, which Green says “is a distillation” of her “experiences in Chicago on the night Obama was elected President.” She describes it as a time when “He was embracing a new beginning, but it was also a moment of sacrifice as he prepared to become the most powerful man in the world.” Finally the seventh day in the series is named Peace.
As some of the images were completed before the first election result was announced, the series’ meaning could easily have been as much about dashed dreams as hope. The work which explores themes of race, identity and democracy, is especially poignant because it is from a non-voter, outsider’s perspective. Although the exhibition has ended in Liverpool, it can now be found in the Flowers gallery, London.
Source: www.hardzine.com
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