Any theatre or festival that presents Bailey’s work embraces the possibility that there will be controversial reactions to his work. They wept, they reflected, they remonstrated. They talked.
Any theatre or festival that presents Bailey’s work embraces the possibility that there will be controversial reactions to his work. They wept, they reflected, they remonstrated. They talked.
That was the effect Brett Bailey’s Exhibit A had on audiences at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in 2012. That wasn’t a bad thing, says National Arts Festival Artistic Director Ismail Mohamed.
Mohamed has described as counter-productive the move to ban Brett Bailey’s Human Zoo exhibition at London’s Barbican Centre later this month.
More than 13 000 people have signed a petition to ban Bailey’s controversial Exhibit B, based on the colonial-era concept of the human zoo.
This week Mohamed said the work was one of the highlights of the National Arts Festival in 2012, highly acclaimed for its artistic merit.
“In addition, Bailey’s deeply sensitive approach to stage work about a very painful part of social history allowed audiences to understand the humiliation and pain that Black people suffered under colonialism,” Mohamed said. Exhibit B – essentially the same piece – has stirred fresh controversy.
Black British artists’ database The British Blacklist, among thousands of others, has reacted to the banning call by Birmingham activist Sara Myers.
On the Change.org website Myers writes, “This piece of work by Bailey has been toured around Europe sparking protests and outrage by anti-racism campaigners.
"Now it is coming to London, and I’m calling on the Barbican not to display it.”
Describing herself as a Black African mother from Birmingham, Myers says, “I campaign and work with my community to try to breakdown the stereotypes that black people have to struggle against in society on a daily basis. I want my children to grow up in a world where the barbaric things that happened to their ancestors are a thing of the past. We have come a long way since the days of the grotesque human zoo – we should not be taking steps back now.”
While Myers recognizes that Bailey's intention is to make a point about the horrors of slavery, she says the irony is lost.
“It’s not long before the people behind the cage begin to feel like animals trapped in a zoo. One of the actors in his piece said, ‘How do you know we are not entertaining people the same way the human zoos did?’” Mohamed said Bailey’s work was emotionally moving, intellectually engaging and socially provocative.
“It is rooted in the political idiom. It is intended to unravel the kind of conversations that are necessary to both remind us about the brutalities that existed but it also challenges us to reflect on how similar kinds of brutalities continue to be perpetuated in societies under occupation,” Mohamed said in an emailed response to Grocott's Mail's request for comment on the issue.
“During the presentation of Exhibit A in Grahamstown, audiences left the performance venue being silently reflective. Others came out weeping. Bailey sat up a fireplace outside the theatre for audiences to gather their emotions, to engage each other and in very many unspoken ways to resolve to never repeat the mistakes of the past.
“Any theatre or festival that presents Bailey’s work embraces the possibility that there will be controversial reactions to his work. It is inevitable that art that delves into political spaces would likely stir emotions and strong reactions.
“As long as theatre moves its audiences into discussion and engagement it serves a vital role. As long as art does not violate the dignity of its subjects any call to ban such art is counter-productive. It denies art the power to speak its truths.”
SEE FOR YOURSELF
See a 2012 video interview with Bailey, with shots from Exhibit A
More comments about Exhibit B Rizpah Amadasun
This is human history….that could influence the future towards a less cruel and humiliating way of entertaining ourselves….I want to go see it so I can understand how awful they were… I want to be able to compare them to the reality tv shows… And the Rascist sexualisation of my fellow sisters in music videos and various other contemporary art forms.
Also whether through technological developments have we as a world community just continued a modern human zoo via our smartphones and cyberspace?
I would further like to see the exhibition so I can perhaps understand the roots of why white men and women still feel they can touch my skin, my hair without permission and why I am chastised for objecting.
Then finally I want to pass on this knowledge to my children, my friends and family in the hope we all treat people with respect in the future.
The British Blacklist Facebook page Rohan Lindo Why do people want to hide this… its censuring an Historical event. This happened, nobody made it up…it happened. Its a truth.
Visually powerful and impacting exhibition I can imagine. It ironic, nobody is petitioning to trying and stop video's of black men treating women like animals or objects in music videos though right. I'm interested to know why the disapproval, and not the emotional reason?
#Education The British Blacklist
