I am Spartacus

The Art Gallery, Bootle
10th January - 31st January 2014

Reviewed by RedSkye

Located on Stanley Road in Bootle, The Art Gallery is not somewhere I'd expect to see an art shop or gallery, however 'Art in Protest' has on display some thought -provoking photographs, paintings and other artworks.

First to catch my interest were a sequence of three monochrome photographs by Turkish photographer Liriya Lee, which show a woman being accosted by an aggressive riot police officer, while she remains completely calm and non-threatening with her arms folded at a peaceful protest in the Turkish capital city Istanbul last year.

Other pieces include an intricate large-scale lino-art piece of David Cameron and Barack Obama portrayed as two scrapping male dogs, with their genitals being ripped off with ominous military attack drones swarming in the background (right).

There's Bernard Howden's 'Social Cleansing' painting of a homeless person sleeping in the doorway of a boarded up empty house. This harks back to Britain of the 1920s and 30s era.

Also on show is Paul Oulton's 'V for Vendetta' portrait which states “People shouldn't be afraid of their Governments - Governments should be afraid of their people", as well as Michael Kirkham's photograph taken last spring in St.George's Plateau at the public gathering and burning of an effigy of Margaret Thatcher.

All in all this exhibition gives artistic expression to a wide variety of political issues of current concern, including war, peaceful public protest, homelessness and governments acting beyond the public interest.

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Comment left by johno on 9th June, 2014 at 22:08
this work was displayed at the arena gallery as part of the No objections collective during February to march and then over to Manchester Piccadilly buildings for mayday.