The Whitechapel Gallery's new summer art festival, the Backyard Biennial, has launched with a central exhibition titled East of the Aldgate Pump that is, according to one critic, a "morose and meaningless" show that gave them a migraine. The festival comprises dozens of offsite events and a main show at the gallery itself, but the central exhibition has been criticised for its lack of coherence and poor curation.
What is the exhibition about?
The wall text claims the exhibition "maps east London as a place defined by movement, resilience and cultural interdependence," but the actual works range far beyond that scope. Rachel Garfield's film about Jewish tailoring in the city fits the theme, but Marwan Bassiouni's photos of views from mosque windows are mostly not in London, and some not even in England. Susan Pui San Lok's video focuses on the Chinese community in Dagenham, while Adam Farah-Saad's installation is specifically about Brent Cross shopping centre and Staples Corner in west London.
Other works stretch even further: Rehana Zaman's dual film installation features seasonal workers and sharecroppers in Punjab and Scotland, and Fozia Ismail's sculptural work addresses climate breakdown's impact on traditional Somali basket weaving. The critic argues that the exhibition tries to cover migration, Britishness, climate crisis, music, and global trade, but ends up being about none of them.
Individual works praised despite overall failure
Despite the harsh critique of the exhibition as a whole, several individual pieces were singled out as excellent. Adam Farah-Saad's installation of Mariah Carey CDs under a huge image of the North Circular ring road was described as a "tender, sad elegy to lost youth." Denzil Forrester's paintings of reggae clubs were called "wild and hypnotic images of the heyday of soundsystem culture." Near the end, Laisul Hoque's snack stand offering jhuri bundiya, a childhood treat, makes connections between Bangladesh and London.
The critic feels sorry for the artists whose work has been "crowbarred into a meaningless, vague, wonky framework" that makes them look as confused as the curators. They note that the exhibition feels like an exercise in ticking Arts Council England funding boxes without consideration for the audience.
A joyless take on migration and community
The review concludes that the exhibition is "dour, heavy-handed, morose" and manages to make the idea of migration and community in London feel "totally joyless." The critic states they want exhibitions about these topics, but they need to "make sense and not suck." The exhibition runs at Whitechapel Gallery until 6 September.
