Media attention

Video art will always be a tough medium through which to convey challenging concepts, and the exhibition at g39 was no exception.

Media attention set out to ‘explore the underbelly of popular culture’. The Way of the Barefoot Lone Pilgrim: The Soul of London, a short video by David Blandy, attempted to question Britain’s ‘exploitation or celebration of other cultures’.

Unfortunately, all this video seemed to do was take abstraction to another level. Star Wars seemed to be the primary inspiration. A barefoot Blandy walked around London in an orange Jedi suit with a wooden stick, which was interspersed with snapshots of Chinese men fighting and aging leaders asking, ‘What is real?’ Highly surreal and mystifying.

Ben Young’s The Sons of l’Homme Doré, a self-directed sci-fi film, while visually stunning, was just as abstract. Focussing on threatened masculinity, the video involved a tanned Adonis applying a mud mask, dancing below a glitter ball and jumping around in front of a giant crab.

Richard Dedomenici’s Fame Asylum saved the day. As a documentary following the formation of a boy band comprised of four asylum seekers, it made for fascinating viewing.

While it was a parody of shows like X-Factor, its most interesting feature was its insight into the lives of the men. Aaron, a 22-year old Albanian, was desperate for his UK friends not to know he was an asylum seeker, didn’t speak a word of English when he first arrived, and sent money regularly to his family abroad, revealing the bittersweet tale of an isolated immigrant.

Tasha Prest-Smith