Misbehaving Bodies: Jo Spence and Oreet Ashery. Wellcome Collection

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“While working in different eras and media, Spence and Ashery challenge the medical gaze and look beyond a diagnosis to form a more complex portrait of their subjects. They foreground collaborative ways of working to create a safe space where vulnerability is made visible.” (Exhibition catalogue)

As I walked through the main doors I was welcomed by the laminated panels of Jo’s work, ‘Beyond the Family Album.’ The lighting is subdued. I am immediately transported back through the decades when I had the privilege of working with Jo on a few occasions. My immediate memory is of discussions of cultural democracy and her insistence on using production methods that were readily available. The laminated panels were to my recollection a political act in that they could be transported anywhere and challenged the exclusivity of the gallery.

Before I arrived, I admit I was sceptical that the work of these two artists would sit together coherently. Thirty years separate the births of the two artists and Oreet employs technologies that were still unimagined by the time Jo died. The intertwining of both artists works surprisingly well with Oreet’s videos in zoned but informal viewing areas. Jo’s work is on the walls in a long cabinet and on a large table. It feels like the space encourages you to linger and really spend time with the questions both artists are addressing.

Possibly because of my past connection with Jo I found the work quite emotional, it was a real reminder of the importance of her work and it was fabulous to see it so prominently displayed. I agree with the curator’s view that:

They take a critical approach to the representation of illness and death and present it as part of the creative texture of life. (Exhibition catalogue)

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This is a core interest for me and very relevant for my own practice, particularly as the digital arena is shifting our relationship to understanding our own lives and deaths. There is so much to explore I feel like words can’t do it justice, it covers a lot of ground in terms of our agency in the face of long-term and life limiting conditions. It looks at the politics of representation and for me contains elements of remediation (Grusin & Bolter, 2000) where old and new technologies are in dialogue. I was particularly struck by the enormous books that have been created for Jo’s works. They are beautiful artefacts, but I wonder what she would have made of them given her preference to be regarded as a ‘cultural sniper’ rather than an artist.

Oreet Ashery’s work ‘Beyond Genesis’ is a non-narrative video work in 12 episodes. It follows a fictional core character who is dying – Genesis. It weaves in Oreet’s research with palliative care nurses and patients with life limiting conditions. In doing so it touches on the issues I am interested in like digital wills, AR tombstones and social media.

Revisiting Genesis considers neoliberal necropolitics, in the setting of multiracial and postindustrial England. https://afterall.org/online/the-death-of-death-oreet-ashery-s-revisiting-genesis#.Xbqd4Oj7QuU

I could not have asked for a more perfect combination in terms of my current areas of interest – family album practices and death/dying. Both artists have given me plenty to think about in terms of my own practice in relation to both content and presentational forms.

Both Spence and Ashery push hard against the clichés around sickness and death: dignified suffering, courageous battles, heroic legacies. It would, then, be revoltingly pat to describe this show as “life affirming”, but the pitch-black humour and anti-establishment ferocity of both artists certainly make it an invigorating – if ultimately heart-breaking – experience. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/may/31/misbehaving-bodies-review-jo-spence-oreet-ashery-wellcome

Oreet Ashery’s ‘Revisiting Genesis’ can be viewed online: http://revisitinggenesis.net/

References:

Grusin, R., & Bolter, J. D. (2000). Remediation: Understanding new media. Cambridge, MA.