North Fulham: Art and Identity

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Exhibition @ the Bhavan Centre

North Fulham residents are the subject of a major new art exhibition which sets out to explore and celebrate the area’s vibrant and diverse community.

North Fulham: Art and Identity is the creation of local resident artist David Ben White, who has created paintings and video footage based on a series of photographs and interviews of local people he met along North End Road, the community’s shopping hub.

Through portrait photography and video footage, the exhibition aims to find common factors of life in North Fulham which local people can identify with. Working with a range of local residents, some born in the area, others who have migrated here, local artist David demonstrates that even though there are large contrasts between people’s pasts, their presents share many common features.

This is the first major exhibition funded wholly by North Fulham NDC and seeks to both engage members of the local community in the world of art and to provoke thought as to what is important to them in their community and daily lives.

The exhibition will be accompanied by interactive workshops and educational sessions and will be promoted throughout local schools.

David Ben White, local artist says: “The disorientating effect of inner city life touches everyone, leaving us at times feeling almost overwhelmed. Our capacity to experience so much change seems strangely unreal.”

“The different voices in the video talk of their life changes, perhaps of migration, of a willingness to change things for a better life, and of the responsibilities they now enjoy.”

David uses car spray paint for his paintings and enjoys the contradiction between what he sees as the product’s apparent purpose; the impenetrable protective skin and what he aims to achieve in his work; faces that appear most vulnerable and unknowable.

The exhibition runs from 3 February – 20 February 2005 at the Bhavan Centre, 4a Castletown Road, London W14 9HE.  Entry is free.

 

February 6, 2005