I thought I’d resurrect my long-lost blog with some musings
from the current Rivington Place exhibition: When Harmony went to Hell.
An exhibition of two parts, we are first invited to understand
the DRC through the work of contemporary Congolese photographer, Sammi Baloji.
In the quest to ensure that history is not erased by the
promises of modernisation and progress, Baloji’s photography, film and montage
work explores his native country’s colonial past and political present.
Foucault’s theories of power and repression are referenced
in relation to Baloji’s work, his images, in particular his montages, serve as
an excellent transition to the photographs and writings of Alice Seeley Harris
from the early 1900’s.
An active member of Anti-Slavery International, Seeley
Harris’ photographs and first-hand accounts from lectures at the Congo ReformAssociation, resulted in public outcry across Europe and America.
Cited as the first example of campaign photography, Seeley
Harris’ work exposed the dire conditions of Congolese slaves under an
oppressive and violent regime and are hailed as instrumental to the eventual
demise of King Leopold II’s reign over the Congo in 1908.
Her accounts of the exploitative rubber and ivory industries
can be compared to those of the extractive industries in developing countries
today and begs the question: How we can ensure that the Hobbesian notions of
the human condition do not prevail in the 21st Century?
A chance to see rarely exhibited works of great historical
importance, this is a must see exhibition.
London
EC2A 3BA
16 Jan – 7 March 2014
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