FADA
Saturday, July 30, 2016
The Front Room Inna Joburg by Michael McMillan
An exhibition
produced by Dr Michael McMillan in association with the Visual Identities in
Art and Design (VIAD) Research Centre
Exhibition
opens on Saturday, 30 July 2016 at 17h30 for 18h00,
FADA Gallery, Bunting
Road Campus, University of Johannesburg
Exhibition
Duration 30 July – 26 August 2016
In THE FRONT ROOM ‘INNA JO/BURG’
installation, UK based writer-artist-curator Michael McMillan recreates a
traditional African-Caribbean family front room, where creolised material
culture meets memory with bittersweet pride. In his recreated domestic
interior, McMillan, who is British born of Caribbean migrant heritage, invokes
his childhood experiences, as well as those of his family and their generation
as they attempted to create a West Indian identity as immigrants in England
during the 1960s.
The aesthetics of the front room
reflects the everyday practice of ‘putting one’s best foot forward’;
arrangement of the room is about ‘impression management’ in terms of hopes and
dreams, respectability and consumer culture. The front room had to always look
immaculate, because it was where the public world viewed the private world of
the family. Upon entering the sensory space, visitors are invited to take a
seat on upholstered sofas as they survey the drinks cabinet displaying rarely
used glassware, artificial flowers, colourful crochet, pictures of The Last
Supper, the exoticised ‘Tina’ and family portraits, all set against floral
patterned wallpaper. They will also encounter oral history sound bites mixed
with music ranging from Nat King Cole to Ska; from Calypso to Jim Reeves; from
Reggae to Mariam Makeba.
THE FRONT ROOM ‘INNA JO’BURG’
installation is a component of Michael McMillan’s residency at VIAD from 27
June to 25 August 2016. During this time, McMillan will steer research,
curation and a programme of activities and events, using the gallery’s
experiential installation as a site for workshops, presentations and talks
around oral history and material culture.
The research residency is funded by Arts
Council England/British Council.
At the opening McMillan and Christine
Checinska presented a collaborative performance titled BACK A YARD, based on
the stories, music, style, dress and objects that feature in their exhibitions.
About the BACK A YARD performance
Both Checinska and McMillan are British
born of Caribbean migrant heritage and conceptually, their work converges
around the aesthetics of the Post War migrant narratives through the material
culture of the public and private domains: the dressed body and the adorned
domestic interior. In their collaborative performance, the artists unpack
themes of resistance through style, fashion and dress; and explore how
self-respect and respect for others was expressed through aspirations in
consumer culture.
About Michael
McMillan
As a writer,
playwright, mixed-media artist, curator and scholar, Dr McMillan’s
transdisciplinary practice explores migration, identity, gender, sexuality and
hidden histories through ethnography, material culture, oral history,
performances, texts, installation and audio-visual media.
Dr McMillan is a
Research Associate in the Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Centre,
University of Johannesburg; Associate Lecturer in Cultural & Historical
Studies at London College of Fashion; and an EAS Associate Researcher (UAL). He
is also a member of the Royal Literary Fund (RLF).
For further
information on the exhibitions and related public programming, please contact:
Maria Fidel Regueros,
Curatorial Team member, Visual Identities in Art & Design Research Centre
Office: +27
(0)11 559 1442 / +27 (0)82 373 6127,
Sunday, July 17, 2016
THE FRONT ROOM 'INNA JOBURG' & The ARRIVANTS - solo exhibitions produced by VIAD.
 |
| Drinks Cabinet (The West Indian Front Room -Geffrye Museum 2005-06) ©John Nelligan |
The
Visual Identities in Art & Design Research Centre (VIAD) take pleasure in
inviting you to the opening of the solo exhibitions and related public events:
THE
FRONT ROOM 'INNA JOBURG'
by
Michael McMillan
FADA Gallery,
Ground Floor
&
THE
ARRIVANTS
by
Christine Checinska
FADA Gallery,
Lower Ground Floor
OpeningReception & and Performance, Saturday 30 July 2016 from 18h00
 |
|
Haywood Magee. A crowd of 700 West Indian immigrants
in the customs hall
at Southampton. 1956. Image courtesy of Getty Images
|
The
opening event will be accompanied by a collaborative performance titled BACK
A YARD by Christine Checinska and Michael McMillan
Exhibition
Duration: 30 July-26 August 2016
FADA
Gallery, Bunting Road Campus, University of Johannesburg.
 |
| The West Indian Front Room (Geffrye Museum 2005-06) ©John Neligan 2005. |
ABOUT THE
FRONT ROOM ‘INNA JOBURG’ BY MICHAEL McMILLAN
THE FRONTROOM ‘INNA JOBURG’ is an installation-based exhibition in which
writer-artist-curator Michael McMillan recreates an African-Caribbean family
front room, in which tradition meets modernity, and creolised material
culture intersects with memory in a postcolonial Diasporic context.
McMillan, who is British born of Caribbean migrant heritage, invokes his youth,
his family and their generation as they struggle to establish a Black British
identity in England during the 1970s. Image (left) Tina, The West Indian Front Room (Geffrye Museum 2005-06) ©Michael McMillan
THE FRONT ROOM ‘INNA JOBURG’ is a re-contextualisation of
McMillan's critically acclaimed exhibition The West Indian Front Room (Geffrye
Museum, 2005-2006) that had over 35, 000 visitors. It led to international
commissions: Van Huis Uit: The Living Room of Migrants in The
Netherlands (Imagine IC, Amsterdam 2007 & Holland tour
2008); and A Living Room Surrounded by Salt (IBB, Curacao,
2008). The Front Room project also includes Tales from
the Front Room (BBC4 documentary, 2007) and the publication, The
Front Room: Migrant Aesthetics in the Home (Black Dog, 2009). For further information follow the provided link. www.thefrontroom.org.uk. Image. Muhammad Ali (in Linda Small's front room) ©Michael McMillan 2005
ABOUT THE
ARRIVANTS BY CHRISTINE CHECINSKA
In THE
ARRIVANTS exhibition, UK-based artist-designer-academic Christine
Checinska investigates the relationship between culture, race and dress. The
conceptual departure point for the work is the 1948 arrival of the Empire
Windrush at London’s Tilbury Docks carrying some 500 Jamaican migrants –
colonial subjects invited by the British government to assist in rebuilding
post-war Britain – hoping to make a better life in the ‘Mother Country’. Image (Detail).Haywood Magee. A crowd of 700 West Indian immigrants in the customs hall
at Southampton. 1956. Image courtesy of Getty Images
For
more information see: The Arrivants.
 |
Image (Detail).Haywood Magee. A crowd of 700 West Indian immigrants
in the customs hall at Southampton. 1956. Image courtesy of Getty Images.
|
PUBLIC
PROGRAMME
17
August 2016, 17h30 for 18h00
Public
walkabout of THE FRONT ROOM ‘INNA JOBURG’ and THE ARRIVANTS exhibitions with
Michael McMillan.
18
August 2016, 18h00
Screening
of the BBC4 documentary video, Tales from the Front Room, followed
by discussion with Michael McMillan.
All
events take place at the FADA Gallery, Bunting Road Campus, University of
Johannesburg
 |
| Radiogram Rockers |
ABOUT THE
ARTISTS
Michael McMillan
Dr
McMillan’s curatorial practice and mixed-media installations include the critically
acclaimed projects: The West Indian Front
Room (Geffrye Museum, 2005-2006); Van Huis Uit: The Living Room of Migrants in The Netherlands
(Imagine IC, Amsterdam 2007 & Holland tour 2008); A Living Room Surrounded by Salt (IBB, Curacao, 2008). The Front Room project also includes Tales from the Front Room (BBC4
documentary, 2007); and the publication, The
Front Room: Migrant Aesthetics in the Home (Black Dog, 2009). Image: Flowers & Vase (The West Indian Front Room-Geffrye Museum 2005-06) ©John Hammond.
 |
| Television. (The West Indian Front Room Geffrye Museum 2005) ©Dave Lewis |
Recent
work includes: No Colour Bar: Black
British in Action 1960-1990 (Guildhall Art Gallery, 2015-2016); Doing Nothing is Not an Option (Peckham
Platform, 2015), and Rockers, Soulheads
& Lovers: Sound Systems back in da Day (NAE, Nottingham 2015-2016 &
198 Contemporary Arts & Learning, London, 2016).
Dr McMillan
is a Research Associate in the Visual Identities in Art and Design Research
Centre, University of Johannesburg; Associate Lecturer in Cultural &
Historical Studies at London College of Fashion; and an EAS Associate Researcher
(UAL). He is also a member of the Royal Literary Fund (RLF). Image: Jim Reeves Album Sleeves (The West Indian Front Room-Geffrye Museum 2005-06) ©John Hammond 2005.
As an academic-designer-artist,
Dr Checinska’s practice-led, inter-disciplinary work is situated at the meeting
point between material culture and contemporary art. Checinska’s practice
interrogates the place of textiles within the global flow of objects, ideas and
identities characteristic of globalisations cross-cultural entanglements. The
cultural exchanges that occur as a result of movement and migration, creating
creolised cultural forms, are recurring themes, as is the correlation between
personal history and received history. She is the instigator and convenor of
the Clothes, Cloth & Culture Group at Iniva, London and was
on the curatorial team for the Iniva touring show Social Fabric
(2012, Iniva, London). Dr
Checinska is a Research Associate in the Visual Identities in Art and Design
Research Centre, University of Johannesburg and an Associate Lecturer in
Fashion at Goldsmiths College, London.Image (Detail). Haywood Magee. A crowd of 700 West Indian immigrants in the customs hall at Southampton. 1956. Image courtesy of Getty Images
For further information on the
exhibitions and related public programming, please contact:
Maria Fidel Regueros,
Curatorial Team member
Office: +27 (0)11 559
1442 / +27 (0)82 373 6127
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