ART

THE KIZITO ARTS MOVEMENT

"I am what I am because of who we all are."- Leymah Gbowee

Welcome to the world of the controversial and provocative Artist Patson Ncube and his fascinating new project - The KIZITO Arts Movement

The KIZITO Arts Movement is a large collective of Artist's local to Cambridge, London and Brighton. To date, featuring the work of Elise Naomi Buddle, Helen Lanzrein, Joe Dean, Nicola Powys, Oliver Wallington and Richard Hickman, this is an expansive and varied family, the very backbone of the project, though, lies buried deep in the complex and compelling works of the collective's founder - Zimbabwean Artist Patson Ncube. 

"How do I explain Ubuntu? It is everything. Everywhere. Ubuntu is what it means to be human. It is working together, creating together, surviving together."
Patson Ncube has been making provocative, political, richly spiritual paintings for many years. A graduate of Westminster School of Art, he has squatted in London warehouses, campaigned outside government buildings and taught Art at various different levels across the western world. However, always at the very heart of his work the concept or philosophy of 'Ubuntu' has remained central. 'Ubuntu' is an illusive and expansive African philosophy mysteriously devoid of a tangible origin, discussed by a wealth of leading political figures, from Desmond Tutu to Nelson Mandela, and embodying all the invaluable virtues that society strives for, clasping for harmony and the spirit of sharing among it's members. 'Ubuntu' essentially promotes an altruistic ethic, a way of life that requires constant selflessness, constant understanding of your surroundings and of your fellow human beings.

It is this fascinating concept, this idea that "United we stand, divided we fall" that clearly excites Ncube. He discusses the concept with a gleam in his eye and the sort of thoughtful eloquence one would expect having observed the intellectual complexities of his work. The painting shown above, which will possibly be included in several of the upcoming shows, is a piece entitled "My God Is A Nigger" and while at first glance it seems little more than frank, candid, provocative scrawling, when he discusses this work Ncube explains that it is clearly not a controversial publicity stunt. "That painting says it all. God is always what people want him to be. He is everything to everyone and to me... he is exactly that. But if he is everything to everyone... why do we fight over him?" Ncube's work typically combines these bold rebellious observations about Religion and Racism with a strong personal narrative, weaving African history, attractively abstract colour schemes and wonderfully simplistic designs with an immediate sense of spirituality, seemingly portraying one man's journey into his past and surroundings and often evoking a sense of disbelief and incredulousness upon arriving at his destination.

Ncube's work has undoubtedly undergone an evolution of sorts, from his early works that were clearly  voicing a very angry, very critical take on his surroundings, to his more ambiguous, more spiritual works in recent years, he explains, "Coming from where I come from, Zimbabwe, looking at my early work... I was very angry. It was just something I never understood, that someone could not only discriminate but that they couldn't possibly co-exist with me, just because of the colour of my skin or where I come from, it made me crazy. I thought I was going mad, I was always thinking 'What the fuck?'"
Thankfully, though his work is more quietly observant nowadays, it still retains this air of disbelief, this 'What the fuck?' sensibility and it's this combined with his understanding of 'Ubuntu' philosophy that provides the backbone to the incredibly varied KIZITO Arts Movement exhibitions that begin on the 7th of July at 'Cafe Julienne' on Regents Street, in Cambridge.

At the heart of the exhibition is the idea of unity. The sense that the collective is more important than the individual, and fittingly, Ncube has gathered an unusually varied community of Artists who will be contributing to the series of KIZITO Art exhibitions, set to descend upon several locations in Cambridge, before travelling to Brighton and then later in the year, showing at various London galleries and spaces. One of these individuals is Elise Naomi Buddle, a Brighton-based Artist whose gloriously hypnotic works (above) explore notions of control in society, both in their conception and in their complex execution. She creates expansive, truly visually arresting works, rich with ambiguous imagery and symbolism, that evoke atmospheric landscapes seemingly inspired by abstract forms. When seen alongside Ncube's own spiritual journey's the works compliment and communicate with each other; illustrating the truly collaborative nature of 'Ubuntu' philosophy and the unity that lies within very different Artist's work.

Oliver Wallington's work, (above) large abstract paintings, site-specific and video installations, explore violence and intimacy using grotesque, fractured forms and looming religious imagery while casting a broad cynical eye at contemporary society and it's treatment of the themes central to his work. Though perhaps a little less aesthetically pleasing than Buddle or Ncube's work, again when seen together in a KIZITO exhibition, the sense of collaboration and collective exploration translate beautifully. (If I may say so myself.)

Another greatly anticipated contributor is the hugely talented Joe Dean - a superb figurative Artist whose own work draws on delicate observations of nature and his environment and captures, in stunning oils, beautiful moments from a wide range of classic Cinematic moments, will be a particular hit at The Cambridge Arts Picturehouse, which is where the exhibition moves on the 3rd of August.

Upon reflection, observing the various members of this new KIZITO Arts Collective, many of which are not covered in this article, one is struck by the incredible quality of the varied work on show and the inexplicable sense of unity that a collection of their work evokes, in fact an important 'Ubuntu' philosophy suddenly springs to mind, in the words of Desmond Tutu "We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas, in fact, we are all connected and what we do affects the whole World. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity."

The KIZITO Arts Movement looks to combine the insurmountable talents of a variety of contemporary Artist who might otherwise be overlooked or remain solitary and create a series of exhibitions that will continue to evolve and grow, adding members as they travel, spreading their message of community and unity and showcasing a broad plethora of stunning talent while actively illustrating the power and beauty of thoughtfully curated ensemble exhibitions. Together indeed, they stand and united they surely won't fall.

Find the KIZITO Arts Movement at; 
twitter: @KIZITOArts
            @WallingtonArt


Facebook: www.facebook.com/KizitoArtsMovement


Blog: http://kizitoartmovement.wordpress.com/

The KIZITO Art Movement are: 
Elise Naomi Buddle
Helen Lanzrein
Joe Dean
Patson Ncube/KIZITO
Nicola Powys
Oliver Wallington
Richard Hickman

ART

EXHIBITION REVIEW

‘Damien Hirst’

Tate Modern, London

★☆☆☆☆

If you don't understand Damien Hirst, Don't worry... It's Conceptual.

To begin my review of Damien Hirst’s first major retrospective exhibition in the U.K, I would like to draw your attention to that wonderful Hans Christian Anderson tale, The Emperor’s New Clothes. The juicy tale of 18^th century deception and arrogance is painfully relevant when trawling the grandiose rooms of the Tate Modern at the opening of the controversial, Young British Artist's huge collection of work. Often derided as "a great pretender" and criticised for having a limited scope and essentially manipulating the Art Industry to his advantage, conning the system and indulging the elite, Hirst recently helmed his own auction, selling an entire collection for upwards of £111 Million and somewhat confirming assumptions that he isn't a particularly convincing artist but that he is instead promoting the idea of art as a product. At last count, Hirst is reputedly worth more than £200 Million and his often outspoken opinions tend to reach headlines quicker than his artistic achievements, recently his strange admiration for the perpetrators of the 9/11terrorist attack earned him considerable criticism, ultimately forcing him to apologise for saying to the BBC about the terrorists, "You've got to hand it to them, really... on one level they need congratulating." However, regardless of his media battles, his actual Artwork often comes under heavy criticism from critics and journalists alike and it's with this in mind that I prepared to join the masses of fascinated visitors, biting the bullet and entering the comic and macabre world of Damien Hirst.

Unfortunately, it quickly became apparent that this was not an exhibition that would silence my criticisms and as much as I wanted to have presumptuously underrated Hirst's understanding of Painting, Sculpture, Installation and Conceptual Art, the results of the Tate Modern's considerable collection did nothing to appease my cynicism.

Of course, attempting to create something interesting out of Hirst’s astonishingly limited body of work was always going to be a thankless task for the Tate and the job of curating it is for the most part capably handled, each room designed to portray a specific movement in Hirst’s career, beginning with his early works, sloppily painted attempts at “Spot-paintings,” a photograph of a young Damien Hirst with a dismembered cadaver and a strange contraption that keeps a ping-pong ball aloft using bursts of air. The second room primarily consists of more large, colourful spots, cabinets of pristinely arranged tablets and the occasional vitrine featuring the life-cycle of flys or a formaldehyde sheep. The fourth room continues in this vein, introducing the familiar use of cigarettes as a metaphor for death (of course) and showcasing more spliced animals in vitrines.

One of the most obvious difficulties in presenting a retrospective of Hirst’s work is the fact that these works have been so over-publicised, every new piece greeted with such controversy and criticism, that inevitably nothing about the exhibition feels fresh or original. Exacerbating the problem is the fact that these works are mostly stagnant (literally,) overly-familiar, meagrely-skilled mock-ups of other Artist’s ideas, like the series of paintings behind glass, in the fifth room, which is supposedly a reference to Francis Bacon’s use of glass as an additionally reflective element reinforcing the exhibition process, which in itself was hardly a novel idea. It becomes increasingly obvious as you peruse the exhibits, that these works no longer hold any value beyond that of the financial, a cruel reminder of Hirst’s inability to engage effectively with anything other than elitist auction houses that gobble up his preposterous efforts greedily, grossly over-valuing his work and consequently widening the gap between elitist and accessible contemporary art.

Without a doubt, there are fleeting moments of satisfaction, the obviously highly publicised use of live butterflies in the site-specific installation In And Out Of Love explores the little creatures short lives as a fairly obvious metaphor for the fragility of life, breaking deliciously from various pupae around the muggy sixth room, the site of meandering exotic butterflies uncharacteristically engages with the audience and effectively symbolises the cycle of life and the beauty of nature trapped in an undulating flow of mortality, while the seventh room, entitled Pharmacy transforms the gallery into a sterile environment, the walls lined with huge cabinets packed with mass-produced medication, bleak and overbearing, it nicely illustrates the desperate human tendency to prolong life in the face of impending doom. Of course the irony of mass-produced placebos as a metaphor for the futile struggle to outlive our natural life-span as depicted by the most lingering of Artists goes largely unnoticed, which when considering the general lack of irony in Hirst’s work, should be largely unsurprising. The fact that Hirst always maintained that exhibitions at the Tate were only for "dead artists" is, in hindsight, a fittingly self-fullfilling prophecy rife with the kind of irony that would soar over Hirst's head like a butterfly on a bid for freedom.

The Inescapable Truth

To come full circle and return to The Emperor's New Clothes, that wonderful tale of 18^th century swindlers genially leading an arrogant king to his social demise, one is inexorably reminded of the contrasting responses from the King’s loyal subjects to said swindlers handiwork, everyone but the child remained silent, perpetuating the great king’s unfounded self-belief and reinforcing the lies his supposedly trusted tailors had peddled. And as the self-professed ‘Bad Boy of Modern Art,’ Damien Hirst is surely one of Art’s greatest con-men, peddling his smug observations and sub-par talents as if he wields some kind of cosmic, awe-inspiring wisdom, essentially clothing his art in a cloak of invisible bullshit that appears to effectively blind the star-struck, celebrity obsessed masses to it’s utter hollow pointlessness. And yet, as Hans Christian Anderson inferred, responsibility cannot be pinned only on the swindler, but also falls on us as his audience, a crowd of observant subjects, loyal to the concept of Art and beholden to the freedom and diversity of the Artist but too outspoken to voice our concerns over the increasing madness unfolding before us.

If you weren’t unsettled by the obviously tacky regurgitation of one very tired theme or disheartened by the overtly commercial outlook of absolutely everything on show, then you are possibly about as alive as a disemboweled cow, split in half and stored in a glass case of formaldehyde (Mother and Child Divided -incidentally.) All this is uncomfortably reinforced by the fact that unusually but not unexpectedly Hirst has created within the actual exhibition his own personal financial alter, filling the penultimate gallery-room with all manner of Hirst-related merchandise, including “Skull T-Shirts” and “Make-it-yourself” Spin/Spot-Painting sets. The popularity of this bleakly oppressive room, ceremoniously separated from the general Gallery shop downstairs (which incidentally also stocks the entire Hirst range, should you have missed it the first time around) only proves to reiterate the stark contrast between the types of Gallery visitors that flood to these sensationalised events, those that queue and claw their way to the nearest “Do-It-Yourself Spin-Painting Set,” gasping in awe at the sheer audacity of a diamond encrusted skull and nodding approvingly at the supposed profundity of a room packed floor to ceiling with artificially manufactured diamonds and then the rest of us shuffling towards the exit briskly, attempting to differentiate between the final few rooms of the exhibition or trying to remember what was actually in the first room, last seen all those hours ago, raising our eyes cynically to the heavens as we pass yet another formaldehyde-stored corpse, typically positioned to evoke, or more likely mock Christian symbolism, frozen, as always, in the last moments of death, we cast one last despairing glance back at the absurdly self-aggrandising nature of the whole thing, and leave, muttering under our breath… “The Emperor has no clothes…”

(‘Damien Hirst’ runs until the 9^th September)