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Donald Rodney | In Retrospect - exhibition guide

Exhibition guide relating to an exhibition, 2008
Published by: inIVA (Institute of International Visual Arts)
Year published: 2008
Unpaginated.

image of Donald Rodney | In Retrospect - exhibition guide

Exhibition Guide to: Donald Rodney: In Retrospect, 30 October - 29 November 2008. Curated by Sebastian Lopez and Keith Piper. Produced by Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts)

From the introduction: “Born in 1961 in Birmingham, UK, Donald Rodney first achieved visibility as part of The Blk Art Group in the early 1980s. During that decade, he went on to become a key figure within the broad alliance of artists, which came to be known as ‘The Black Art Movement’. In the following years his wide-ranging practice came to defy simple categorisation both thematically, and through its innovative approach to materials and technical processes. At the moment of his untimely death in 1998 from complications arising from sickle-cell anaemia, Rodney had left a multifaceted and influential body of work. This exhibition brings together a number of Rodney’s seminal works dating from the late 1980s to his final solo exhibition in 1997, 9 Night in Eldorado. Here, for the first time in a decade, the multiple themes explored through the artist’s work are given space to interact. It is out of this interaction that a range of increasingly complex and nuanced readings of the work of Donald Rodney continues to emerge. A new work by filmmaker John Akomfrah, created in memoriam to Rodney, a close friend, brings the exhibition full circle. The Genome Chronicles references previously unseen Super 8 footage taken by Rodney and is interlaced with Akomfrah’s personal film archive.…

List of works in the exhibition: Britannia Hospital 3, 1988 - Oil pastel on x-ray, 83x447 cm - Museums Sheffield; Untitled Drawing, 1989 - Pencil, Charcoal, tape on paper, 100x138cm - The estate of Donald G Rodney; Self Portrait: Black Man Public Enemy, 1990, Lightboxes with dyratrans prints 190.5x121.9cm - Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London; John Barnes, 1991 and Mexico Olympics, 1991, Lightboxes, fluorescent tubes colour transparencies 107.3x81 x 16.8cm each - The Estate of Donald Rodney; Doublethink, 1992 - Engraved plaques, trophies, dimensions variable - Private Collection and the Estate of Donald G Rodney; Flesh of My Flesh, 1996 - Photograph on aluminium, 90x270cm Purchased for the Contemporary Art Society Special Collections Scheme and Given to the South London Gallery. On loan from the Southwark Art Collection, London Borough of Southwark; In the House of My Father, 1996-97, photograph on aluminium 122x153cm - Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales. Donated by the Contemporary Art Society, 2000; Land of Milk and Honey II, 1997, Glass vitrine, copper coins, milk, 168x61x31cm - The Estate of Donald Rodney; My Mother, My Father, My Sister, My Brother, 1997, skins,pins,tape, 2x3x2cm (unframed) - The Estate of Donald G Rodney. On loan to Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales; Psalms, 1997, Autonomous wheelchair with proximity detectors, 90x60x60cm - The Estate of Donald G Rodney and the centre for Robotics and Intelligent Systems at the University of Plymouth; The Genome Chronicles - A Threnody for Lost Lives, 2008 by John Akomfrah.

Related people

»  John Akomfrah OBE CBE

Born, 1957 in Accra, Ghana

»  Sebastian Lopez

Born in Argentina, date unknown

»  Keith Piper

Born, 1960 in Malta

»  Donald Rodney

Born, 1961 in Birmingham, England. Died, 1998

Related exhibitions

Related venues

»  The Black-Art Gallery

London, United Kingdom