Scape Specific (2006)
The Importance Of Being Lady Lucy (2007)
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Scape Specific (2006) The Importance Of Being Lady Lucy (2007) |
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The revelations that the London bombers of last July were, apparently, 'British' Muslim young men cast a new and discomfiting spotlight on a new generation of Britain's 'Asian' youth, in particular those with parents from countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh. Already burdened with and suffering from wider societal ignorance, stereotyping and indifference, many younger British Muslim males have, since the bombings, found themselves being treated with (and discussed in terms of) increased suspicion that their Britishness counts for little or nothing, when set alongside the media-generated picture of them as resentful and disaffected fodder, ripe for manipulating by someone or other mad mullah. This vexing and fractious scenario provides a perhaps unfortunately timely backdrop for the arrival of two new Book Works productions, both published at the end of last year. Sheikh 'n' Vac by Yara El-Sherbini and I'll get my coat by Usman Saeed and Sukhdev Sandhu. We know for certain (or at least, can well imagine) that something which 'provocatively satirizes representations of Muslims' is very likely to be something that a non-Muslim, or a white artist, could not get away with. The scenario of El-Sherbini employing sixth form humour to 'satirize' Muslims is perhaps a not entirely unproblematic one. But Book Works is, as far as it is concerned, on the safest of grounds in deflecting such concerns or criticism: both of these publications were brought into existence by Sara Wajid, the editor of Scape Specific, the Book Works project under which these two publications fall. Scape Specific has the rather overblown and improbable aim of exploring 'the evolution of a Muslim vernacular in the British landscape'. I'll get my coat is in many ways an altogether more substantial, though equally compact publication, consisting as it does of five written sections, each one dealing with some or other aspect of the primarily South Asian and Turkish/Kurdish Muslim presence in various parts of the capital and the country. The first section 'An Anthropology of Asian Ruins' serves as an introduction. Subsequent chapters chronicle the observations and conversations of Sandhu and Wajid, as they pass through Whitechapel ('The Slacks Manufacturers of Whitechapel'), Stoke Newington ('The Wailing Wall of Stoke Newington'), Bradford ('The Mill Chimney of Worstedopolis') and Ilford ('A Cemetery in Ilford'). These texts are accompanied by Saeed's paintings and his often quirky, offbeat, but consistently well observed photographs. There is nothing celebratory about these photographs. Instead, they document individuals, communities and environments in various stages of often moribund existence, decline and death. Likewise, there's nothing celebratory about the texts which are, to varying degrees, grim, brooding and humourless. As such, they represent a healthy and refreshing antidote or alternative to the seemingly inevitable upbeat and colourful tone that accompanies so much ultimately mediocre commentary on the immigrant presence in the UK. Those picking up this little book seeking or expecting good cheer stories should definitely look away now. These are by and large candid observations that oscillate between the miserable and the poignant. From 'We are held up as the acceptable face of migration: model minorities brimming with high grades and a nose for a canny business deal' (first section) through to the last section's claim that 'It is hard to escape the thought that immigrants are never so deep a part of the English landscape as when they die.' There is no let-up in the narrative's cheerless tone. Though the tone of I'll get my coat makes the reader want to open up a couple of veins, the book's visual elements make it a surprisingly colourful affair. As such, Saeed rescues what might otherwise be an unremittingly forlorn, disconsolate and despondent homage to reality. The complete version of this appeared in Art Monthly, February 2006 |
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