NAE’S FUTURE EXHIBITIONPROGRAMME AT A GLANCE

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THE CURRENT SITUATION YARA EL-SHERBINI10 MAY – 7 SEPTEMBER 2014 MAIN GALLERY

An exhibition where visitors can play and touch!

Yara El-Sherbini makes playful art which can be enjoyed by all. For the past 10 years, El-Sherbini’s artworks have used the recognisable formats of quizzes, gameshows and jokes, as well as referencing everyday objects, such as toilet locks and books. She uses familiar things to dismantle the intimidating barriers that can be felt in the gallery environment to allow wider audiences to relate to and engage with contemporary art.

Underneath their accessible exterior, El-Sherbini’s artworks provoke important socio-political questions. The laughter and play she introduces does not intend to undermine these deeper issues, but instead are a means of encouraging the audiences’ reflection and active participation with the artwork. This might be in their response to a joke or question El-Sherbini offers, or in the challenge presented by one of her games. This physical interaction, and the thoughts and ideas the audience take home with them, make El-Sherbini’s artworks complete.

NAE has commissioned five new works by El-Sherbini for The Current Situation. At the centre of the exhibition is a giant ‘buzz-wire’ game in the shape of the world map. Visitors of all ages are invited to take on the challenge of travelling the globe by carefully navigating the complex forms of landmass and internal borders with the handheld wand. If you mistakenly make contact with a border, a warning light and alarm will sound, and you will physically experience a ‘buzz’ in your hand. As the title of this central artwork in the exhibition suggests, The Current Situation is a means of exploring and considering what is happening in the world today.

Through ‘playing’ with the piece and attempting to navigate the globe, the artist is inviting participants to reconsider our assumed understanding of maps – why are some borders perfectly straight whilst others follow the natural geography of the land, who had the authority to draw a border in the first place? The Current Situation deliberately includes those borders being contested today. For example, the form of the annexed Golan Heights, South Ossetia, and the contested Tamil borders in Sri Lanka, despite being disputed borders, are forged in the same solid steel as those borders deemed official. This highlights the relevance and power of these borders to many, and ensures invisible lines become as visible and as equal as the others.

Please contact NAE to plan your visits and to learn more about our educational offer

National Curriculum Links• History• Citizenship• Art and design and cultural education• Design and technology• Science

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HAIRSTYLES AND HEADDRESSES (TITLE TBC) J.D. OKHAI OJEIKERELATE SEPTEMBER 2014 – EARLY JANUARY 2015 (DATES TBC) MAIN GALLERY

This touring show by The Southbank Centre is the first UK exhibition of work by renowned Nigerian photographer, J.D. Okhai Ojeikere. The Hairstyles series began in 1968, driven by Ojeikere’s desire to document the many different types and meanings of hairstyles worn by Nigerian women.

These photos from his Hairstyles series are part of an archive of nearly 1000 pictures showing the intricate hair-dos of African women taken at work, social engagements and in the streets of Lagos. The beautifully composed black and white images draw attention to the sculptural quality of the hair, almost elevating it to an art form in itself. Ojeikere’s work is a unique treasure of historical and anthropological importance. As the artist explains:

“There are hundreds of ethnic groups in Nigeria, each with its own language, traditions and as many different hairstyles… The hairstyles are never exactly the same; each one has its own beauty... Some styles sometimes need more than a week of work.”

Certain hairstyles are purely decorative while others are more ceremonial and have a precise meaning. Among other things, the style determines specific types of ceremony (such as marriages or coming of age) as well as the status of the woman and her family.

“Royal families have the exclusive right to their hairstyle, which cannot be imitated... it’s a mark of distinction. Their knowledge is transmitted from mother to daughter.”

With every portrait Ojeikere notes where the hairstyle is from, its meaning, its name and its history. Although there is a strong documentary quality to the series, preserving an ancient heritage, Ojeikere’s presents the hairstyles as works of art. Often taken from the back, they are sculptural and abstract, sensitive to the intricacies of the work and admiring of the beauty of the design.

Ojeireke’s work is held in a variety of public and private collections, including the Tate (London), Getty Museum (Los Angeles), Foundation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain (Paris), Musée du Quai Branly (Paris), Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain (Geneva), National Arts Council (Lagos), Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao), Collection Agnes b. (Paris), Jean Pigozzi Colletcion (Geneva), Smithosian Institution (Washington) as well as the Walther Collection (New York). This collection was presented in the International Pavilion in the Venice Biennale 2013.

National Curriculum Links• History• Citizenship• Art and design and cultural education• Design and technology• ScienceThere will a teachers pack available for this exhibition

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MAHTAB HUSSAINLATE JANUARY – LATE APRIL 2015 MAIN GALLERY

Mahtab Hussain is a social commentary artist who uses photography to document and address the changing identity of young British working class Pakistani men living in Britain, while also documenting individuals from Kashmir, Bangladesh, Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan. To date Mahtab’s practice has been centred around exploring the question: what does it mean to be a British Pakistani male living in contemporary British society?

Most recently Mahtab has completed a significant body of work called You Get Me through working extensively in the Spark Hill area of Birmingham. Here he spent five years photographing the Pakistani community, exploring the important relationship between identity and masculinity. His portraits reveal men who consider and present themselves as both Pakistani men, but whose lives have existed wholly in the UK. What emerges from these images, is an insight into a shifting section within a minority group which has a profound collective identity and belief system of its own, yet exists within the framework of the West; these portraits essentially reveal an internal conflict between two cultures.

The desire of these young British Pakistanis is to be westernized and accepted, however their community is insular and inherently avoids integration with the wider population. Religion is often explained as the cause of the divide, part of which is true. However, several reasons play a role, poverty, social/cultural constraint by families, and a relentless reminder of British colonialism. This has caused a great deal of hopelessness within the community through segregation, racial subordination and failure in education and employment.

It is likely that the exhibition at NAE will extend Mahtab’s core interests as described above. However, the work produced for this project will be an entirely new collection produced as result of spending time in Nottingham and within the diverse community of Hyson Green. Through his research into the locality, the photography work produced for this exhibition will respond specifically to the experiences, issues and challenges of the people of Hyson Green, extending Mahtab’s ongoing exploration of British identity in the 21st century.

National Curriculum Links• Citizenship• Geography• History• Art and design and cultural education

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Zarina Bhimji is embarking on an ambitious new work for. ‘Jangbar’, which will be approximately minutes long,will be presented as a single screen installation. Following onfrom ‘Yellow Patch’, a portrait of trade and immigration routesacross the Indian Ocean between India and Africa, the film willbe shot on location in East Africa including at Maralal, alongthe Kenya Railway, at a church in Mombasa, underwater inthe Indian Ocean and in Zanzibar. As with Bhimji’s previouswork, ‘Jangbar’ will be neither documentary nor narrativebased. Rather, through sound and moving image it will workthrough metaphor and visual poetry, pulling together the history of India, Africa and Britain in East Africa with powerand emotional resonance.

“Many young men like my father left school at the age of tenand came to East Africa. My father completed his schooling at the th standard in Gujarati medium. He served water to the passengers at the train station. A year later an acquaintanceof the family offered my father a job making ghee in Uganda.He left Gujarat to make the journey across the Indian Ocean at the age of . It is this journey that I would like to investigate.”

Brief Synopsis

The film will investigate the social, political, psychologicaland aesthetic conditions of the colonial impact in East Africa.The attempt to depict this history has been fragile.

Bhimji will film in remote places in the Kenyan landscape,such as the Samburu, which was previously inhabited by European settlers. There will be shots of stations along theKenya Railway, a key element of British colonial presence in the region, with the railway itself serving as a metaphor for how we inter-connect with one another. At its centre willbe Nairobi bustling with a pervasion of foreign languages.

We see images of engraved spoons, delicate silk and linen.Shots of the rd class travel compartments with slatted woodenseats and staff quarters. The presence of protruding cabinetsfastened like hunting trophies, intricate colonial furniture and walls will emanate with erotic presence. Tables look likefortifications, exuding the presence of people. Evening sunlight,benches, signage; the gentlemen’s and ladies’ lavatory, st class, nd class and rd class carriages. The Imperial BritishEast Africa Company’s flags flying – a record of absence and loss that speaks of the passage of time; history preservedand fossilised.

The film will capture landscape that was taken away fromAfricans: Acacia thorn trees some forty feet high, mountainranges shimmer gently in the breeze. Birds, butterflies anddesert roses stretch as far as the eye can see. There is a feelingof being de-humanised and humbled by the vastness.

On the coast we see brooding skies, blazing sunlight, thechanging nature and colour of the sea. We hear snatches oflaughter; echoing voices in Swahili, Arabic and Kutchi. Wedraw closer to Africa. Far away, peaceful shores that lie softlybeneath an exhalation of light mist, Dariyani bhasha (languageof the sea) murmurs. The camera’s varied lenses will transformthe physical into the psychological.

A deep roaring sound fills the frame: Queen Victoria’s funeralin London in ; the sounds of artillery; the loud roar ofcannons that carries for miles. Slow down the sound to reveal echo patterns and reverberation in the empty streets;Radio Kenya announces the news of Kenyan independence;mutterings of declarations of Crown land. At dawn the lightreveals the outline of a jagged chain of hills.

Transference had been made from India to East Africa. Africare-created as if in the vastness of India.

“My parents had abandoned India. They carried their villagewith them. A few reassuring relationships, a strip of land. I cameto the UK and could not deny Africa. The architecture we livedin was distinctive. Did India penetrate the walls of our house? Isthere a difference with Indians who went abroad? A sadness ofour common loss, a feeling that surfaced strongly when my fatherdied and was buried in Leicester. This loss was complete.”

Zarina BhimjiJangbar

JANGBAR (WORKING TITLE) ZARINA BHIMJIAPRIL – JULY 2015 (TBC) MAIN GALLERY

Jangbar is a new film and sound installation by British photographer, film-maker and installation artist, Zarina Bhimji. This eagerly anticipated piece joins Bhimji’s portfolio of immersive works in film, and is the first piece to be produced following the critically acclaimed Yellow Patch (2011). Shot on location in India and inspired by trade and immigration routes between India and Africa, Yellow Patch, premiered in the major survey exhibition of Bhimji’s work at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, in 2011.

Bhimji was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2007. She creates poetic photographs and films which capture human traces in empty landscapes and buildings, often focusing on places haunted by their histories. In Jangbar, Bhimji returns to East Africa, a region well researched by the artist in the making of previous works such as Out of Blue (2002) filmed in Uganda, Waiting (2007) filmed in Kenya, and various photographic works produced in Zanzibar.

Jangbar trails hundreds of miles of the Kenya railway, taking in locations across Kenya, Tanzania, and Zanzibar with glimpses of the Indian Ocean. Panning shots of vast empty landscapes and seemly abandoned buildings are combined with exquisitely framed details that closely resemble still-life paintings. In Bhimji’s trade-mark style, the literal presence of people is virtually none existent, and aside from the lightest stirring of air, all movement and action is stripped away from the film. Instead, the viewer’s attention is captured and held by the seductive beauty of Bhimji’s compositions. Confronted by the raw and hauntingly empty quality of Bhimji’s imagery, the viewer is left to draw their own narratives in respect to the scenes.

Depictions of flora, seascapes, landscapes and place names for towns are combined with imagery of disused colonial administrative buildings, faded paintings of Queen Elizabeth, church alters, empty railway waiting rooms, and signage demarcating ‘class’. The sound track which engulfs the installation is an evocative mix of abstract sounds, the natural tone of the environments depicted and different voices speaking in Swahili and English. This layering of sound and imagery, subtly linked to people, places and historical moments, has the effect of transporting the viewer through time. Moving back and forth between the past and the present day, the viewer is invited to draw connections between the two. This in turn provokes a questioning of power, politics, legalities, the way history is written and who it is written by.

National Curriculum Links• Citizenship• Geography• History• English• Art and design and cultural education

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JAMAICA HIDDEN HISTORIES 5 SEPTEMBER - 1 NOVEMBER 2015 MEZZANINE GALLERY

Jamaica Hidden Histories is an educational project by Full Spectrum Productions, focussing on Jamaica in its historical context with Britain. The project charts the period from when Oliver Cromwell succeeded in capturing the island of Jamaica from the Spaniards in 1655, and the five decades of Jamaican influence on British culture and economy since Jamaica’s independence in 1962.

The project presents an important opportunity to unearth and communicate valuable knowledge for diverse communities to understand Jamaica’s distinctive cultural identity. Through researching, learning and conservation, participants will explore how Jamaican culture has, over 50 years, become a recognisable and global brand that continues to grow today.

The project explores the ‘Hidden Histories’ relating to Jamaica and Britain - discovering artefacts, oral histories, paintings, photographs, sculptors, films, publications, textiles and business archives - to fill in the gaps in archives and collections to provide a cultural reference for future generations.

Jamaica Hidden Histories launches at NAE this August through an event call Sugar was King. Nottingham’s communities will play an invaluable role in stimulating the content of the exhibition. A key component of the project is the education pack that will be created alongside the exhibition.

National Curriculum Links• Citizenship

• English

• Geography

• History

• Art and design and cultural education

There will be a teachers pack available for this exhibition

LOCATION OF GALLERIES

Main:Largest gallery space at NAE, situated on the Ground Floor

Mezzanine:Medium size gallery space, situated on the First Floor

Central Gallery:Spans three floors at NAE and is situated in the centre of the building on the walls in the stairwell

Please contact Glenis Williams – Learning and Community Engagement Coordinator to book a gallery tour, related workshops or loan resources from our outreach collection.

Find out how you can improve your educational schools experience and explore the many creative activities we can offer linked to the curriculum.

Please contact NAE before you plan your visit for confirmation of the exhibition and the dates.

39 – 41 Gregory Boulevard, Nottingham NG7 6BE

T: 0115 924 8630 E: glenis@nae.org.uk M: 0758 304 7554 W: www.nae.org.uk

Gallery Opening TimesMonday- Friday 10.30am-7.00pmSaturday 9.30am-6.00pmSunday 11.30am-5.00pmPlease note we are closed Bank Holidays