It seems like every week a new civil uprising hits the headlines, another massacre is condemned, another despot is being overthrown. Readers might mutter “it was ever thus” with some justification; The People versus The State is an ongoing battle and has been since time immemorial, with coups a glorious triumph or crushed under an iron boot, revolution followed by counter revolution. The only constants in these oscillating power struggles is bloodshed, and in fluctuating measure, hope.
A collection of new commissions and recent contemporary works of art have been gathered to look at the post-revolution period, after the tanks have rolled in, and the news crews have mostly rolled out, when the cheering crowds have dispersed, and when the business of government is the next big battle. Anguish and Enthusiasm: What Do You Do With Your Revolution Once You’ve Got It throws the net wide in both geographical scope and timespan, reaching back to the end of the 19th Century to bring us an image of a socialist being put to death at the end of France’s “Fourth Revolution”, through the propaganda plastered re-education of the Chinese people under Mao Tsetung, the Irish “Troubles” and the fight against European colonialism in South America.
Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc
Ca va ça va on continue (2012-13)
Installation view
Video
Image by TAPE
Trust Your Struggle
Oscar Grant (2013)
Installation view
Photo by Paul Greenwood
Among the new commissions is a powerful work by Trust Your Struggle – the Oakland, California collective including Cece Carpio, Erin Yoshi, Miguel Perez and Shaun Burner – which has recreated their Oscar Grant III mural outside Cornerhouse, the cultural space in Manchester that’s hosting Anguish and Enthusiasm. Grant died after being shot by a Bay Area police officer while lying on the ground after a round-up of train passengers on New Year’s Eve 2009. Court testimony heard that the officer had intended to shoot Grant, who had been arrested with a number of others following a fight on the train, with a Taser, but pulled his pistol instead and shot grant once in the back, killing him. Mobile phone footage prompted some to call the incident “summary execution”, and there were protests and riots sparked by the videos.
The officer was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, a perceived injustice which led to more rioting, looting and violence. The backlash included Trust Your Struggle’s original mural, which became a focal point for memorial tributes, and which has now been repainted on Cornerhouse’s outer walls by the four collective members. The work recalls the art of the civil rights movement of 1960s America, and asks if the situation has really improved in the intervening years. The recent Trayvon Martin scandal would suggest not.
Anguish and Enthusiasm is on show until 18th August.
***
Artefacts from the Cultural Revolution
Installation view
Image by Jan Dixon and Emily Dixon
Eoghan McTigue
Empty Sign (TU, 2002) – installation view
Preview event
Photo by Paul Greenwood
Trust Your Struggle
Installation view
Image by Jan Dixon and Emily Dixon
Liubov Popova
Maquette for the City of the Future (1921)
Installation view
Photograph, framed; 13.8 x 20.8 cm,
framed 34 x 39.5 x 3.5cm
Image by Jan Dixon and Emily Dixon
Pocas Pascoal
Il y a quelqu’un qui t’aime (2003)
Film still
Copyright Ex Nihilo, Integrada, VOI Sénart, France 2003
Courtesy the artist
Trust Your Struggle
Oscar Grant (2013)
Mural, spray paint, 5 x 6 meters approx.
Image by Jan Dixon and Emily Dixon
(R) The End of the Commune – Execution of a Petroleuse.
From The Graphic illustrated newspaper
(Archive newspaper print, June 10, 1871)
(L) Eoghan McTigue – Empty Sign (1998)
Installation view
Image by Jan Dixon and Emily Dixon
Michelangelo Antonioni
Chung Kuo, Cina (1972)
Installation view
35mm film transferred to DVD, 220mins
Image by Jan Dixon and Emily Dixon
Photo, Digital Reporter Miranda Wade
Artefacts from the Cultural Revolution
Installation view
Image by Jan Dixon and Emily Dixon
Pocas Pascoal
Il y a toujours quelqu’un qui t’aime (2003)
Installation view
Video, 56mins
Image by Jan Dixon and Emily Dixon
Jun Yang
Paris Syndrome (2007-8)
Installation view
Video, 16:9, 10 min
Image by Jan Dixon and Emily Dixon
