FADA

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 more information visit: VIAD Website

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


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’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