We Face Forward

I went into Manchester today. It was raining quite heavily so it was a perfect day to head to the Manchester Art Gallery to see part of the We Face Forward series on West African Art.

The photography of Charles Okore was superb as was George Osodi's photographs of the Niger Delta. The latter's arresting images showed the impact of oil on the stunning but damaged fine ego system. Shame on you BP and Shell. I sat in on a fascinating talk by Emeka Ogboh on his "bringing sounds of Lagos to Manchester". His aim was to use the emotive sound of his wonderful city to bring those from Nigeria living in Manchester to the gallery through playing recordings of markets and streets of Lagos in Piccadilly Gardens. It worked.

Yesterday I watched a film about surrealist artist Frida Kahlo. Her husband, communist painter Diego Rivera commented in the film "rich people do not have good taste, they pay others to have it for them" which certainly describes much of the art world well. However, Manchester Art Gallery had a different vibe to it today with lots of people from African decent visiting the exhibitions....not at all usual. Art is not just about the snotty pretentious types with inflated egos who comment on BBC2 art programmes. It plays a valuable role in providing social commentary in a way that is not possible using other mediums. I look forward to attending more of the We Face Forward series across Manchester.

I really liked the small exhibition on "Colonial" posters from the Empire. The timing suggests that there are a number of republican curators in the gallery as they demonstrated a clear British superiority over the indigenous people of the Empire. On first view, the posters demonstrated superb graphic design but go below the surface they were quite disturbing and upsetting. Much of the wealth of the current Royal family was build from subjugating those in the empire and hopefully the Queen and those waving the Union Flag will reflect on this during their celebrations.

I was brought up to respect the Queen, especially with my Grandad being part of the Royal Household. I was always at Holyrood Palace and often got tips from American tourists on telling them the story of the murder of Davide Rizzio. I went on holiday to Balmoral and even rode on the royal ponies. Coming up to the current celebrations made me reflect though, and I concluded that maybe it is time to become a republic. It just seems untenable that the head of state of a mainly secular society is also the head of the Church of England. Her failure to recognise many of her subjects is quite frankly being as bigoted as that frightful man Archbishop John Sentamu.

Eeek! The Bald Man is being political today! Ach....Viva la Revolución!