First Provisional
President of Africa
The work explores issues with nationalism, museums and history to evoke a spectator’s
gaze on the past and look forward to the future. An imperial military regalia
uniform identified to Marcus Garvey of Jamaica is shown on display against a magnolia/coconut
background, with the clothing’s hat on a mannequin plinth. In this respect, the
past is presented despairingly, and the legacy of leadership and duty behind
the once respectable garments become disillusioned nostalgia. Although it was
never official, Garvey’s oath of office as President of Africa was a statement
against colonialist affliction on the continent in the past and then-present.
Enthused
to explore the potential of self-identity, Adam Kelly’s work develops notions
of history and ideologies. Kelly produces work ranging across various mediums
including sculpture and painting. His characteristically Eurocentric work
reveals his successes and failures to represent nostalgic memories that are
both devastating and promising to communities and individuals.
Kelly’s compositions have an autonomous determination
and often exorcising approach that links his oeuvre to modernism. The
re-appraisal of avant-garde techniques for found and discarded items, and
abstract thought construct new situations to comment on the farcical ideas of
diaspora and nationalism.
1 comment:
Well done Airspace Gallery on the production of the Studio Show!
An interesting aspect of nationalism/leadership, the military regalia represent lost order but at the same time, a possibility of new identity, free of the imperial constraints.
Well done, Adam K!
Hanna
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