[re]locate at New Art Exchange, Nottingham
Blackett | Feb 09, 2010 | Comments View Comments
New Art Exchange, Nottingham is proud to present a ground-breaking sound installation by Tahera Aziz, which revisits the place where Stephen Lawrence was tragically murdered, and attempts to preserve the memory of the tragic events surrounding his death.
[re]locate stages a sonic reconstruction focusing on the bus stop on Well Hall Road in Eltham, South London where Stephen Lawrence was fatally injured following an unprovoked racially motivated attack by a gang of white youths. Artist Tahera Aziz uses transcripts from the inquiry report to build up a picture of what happened on that fateful night, and exploits audio storytelling to encourage the audience to generate their own mental images of the events.
Tahera Aziz is an artist and educator based in London with a longstanding creative and political interest in identity, migration and racism. Her works explore how wider socio-political issues or events can impact on the individual to shape their experiences, and their sense of self and belonging. In this exhibition she challenges the audience by putting them in the position of three witnesses who were standing at the bus stop on the night of April 22 1993 and who, according to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, boarded a bus shortly after the attack. Aziz poses the question – what would the audience do if faced with the same predicament.
[re]locate has been four years in the making and is an artistic response to a horrific event and the public inquiry that followed it.
Aziz said: “The agonising story of Stephen Lawrence touched the lives of a generation with the inquiry marking a turning point in Britain’s approach to race relations, highlighting issues relating to policing and the Black and minority ethnic communities.”
“Young people may not have directly heard of Stephen Lawrence but they’ll be able to make immediate connections with the issues raised by the artwork.”
New Art Exchange, 39-41 Gregory Boulevard, Nottingham NG7 6BE
Opening Times: Monday to Friday 10am – 7pm and Saturday 10am – 5pm
Admission to the exhibition is FREE
For more information visit the NAE website: www.nae.org.uk
About the Author: David is the New Media Manager and Culture Editor at 69 Towers. Easily distracted by shiny things David keeps himself busy by staring at a variety of screens. Musical tastes includes anything that has a woman singing over some kind of 80's inspired elctro beat and men who sound like women singing over an 80's elctro beat. The current thing that makes me sad is that the 90's is now retro. Currently on the hunt for shoes that look good with a pair of brown bootcut trousers. You can contact David at david@69-247.com.
