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The
Ghosts of Songs
Black Audio Film Collective
, Wood Street (2nd February
- 1st April 2007, Tues-Sun 11am-6pm)
Reviewed by
During their active years in the 1980s and 90s, the Black Audio Film
Collective never navel gazed about the 'black experience', unlike many
of their modern day, lottery-funded counterparts. Which is a very good
thing, for two reasons. First off, there's no such thing as the black
experience or identity, any more than there is a white one. Condoleezza
Rice feels her ethnicity in a very different way to people scraping a
living in Liverpool. Secondly, the group's work is therefore open to those
of us with much less melanin in our skin.
The Ghosts of Songs is a retrospective exhibition, taking in a fascinating
selection of the collective's films and posters, even taking in their
record and book collections. The films are split between four partitioned
galleries on the first floor, and the ground floor Media Lounge. Upstairs
you can see Handsworth Songs - which documents the poverty and alienation
that sparked the Handsworth riots of 1981 and 1985, and Signs of Empire
- which weaves together haunting music, political speeches, and images
from the British so-called 'Commonwealth'. This film is particularly powerful,
because it's eerily reminiscent of the current attempt by the US and UK
to bring the entire Middle East under the sway of Western business interests.
Downstairs, there are several films on a loop. During my visit I watched
The Last Angel of History - which combines black working class history
with sci-fi narratives and a blues/funk/jungle soundtrack, and A Touch
of the Tar Brush. This was filmed in Liverpool fifteen years ago, and
presenter John Akomfrah re-traced writer JB Priestley's 1933 journey through
areas such as Toxteth, where he had been delighted to see a large black
population co-existing (and reproducing) with the local whites. At one
moment, a woman at my screening sat bolt upright, pointed at the screen
and started shouting. Apparently, her sister had been interviewed for
the film, and she'd never known about it!
The Media Lounge also plays host to a new piece by former collective
member David Rokeby. Using musical keyboards, visitors can choose images,
and combine them with music and sound effects to create their own one
time only film. I played with this for about twenty minutes!
As soon as I saw that most of the collective's books are also either
on my shelves or my Amazon wishlist, I knew I'd be intrigued by the whole
exhibition. But there is something there for anyone who has ever struggled
to get by in life, whether their ancestors left Africa a hundred thousand
years ago or last Tuesday.
Comment left by Paul on 26th April, 2010 at 13:43 After researching Handsworth songs and in particular the photo of John Akomfrah holding a film camera. I came across Pogus Caesar's oom gallery, there is a wealth of archive photographs of the riots and Black Audio Film collective in Birmingham 1985.
http://www.oomgallery.net/gallery.asp?location=41&c=68460 Comment left by Martha D on 11th May, 2010 at 23:14 Thanks Paul, am aware of Pogus Cesar's Handsworth pics of the riots.
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