On the 25th of January 2023, I visited the Patois Banton showcase in the Bonington gallery, Nottingham. It had been almost a year since I'd last gotten the chance to visit an art exhibition (this being 'Hockney's Eye' from the Fitzwilliam Museum) and as someone that values seeing art in person I thought this was an amazing opportunity.
Walking into the gallery space, the low thrum of the music Banton chose to accompany his work seems to pull you into a different world; I couldn't help but make a religious comparison to the layout of the work in front of me, large tomes of work illuminated by large spotlights, but justapoxed by the intensity of the creations within the books themselves. Banton himself created the paper, the bindings and the stories within each piece, something that was particularly impressive considering their scale.
Banton's work focuses on the collection and adaptation of cultural artefact styles to tell modern stories. This is heavily inspired by the colonialist theft of modern museums, such as the British Museum, where artefacts are removed from their original contexts and often presented incorrectly. Banton attempts to reclaim this concept and fight against the institutional status quo, which I believe he very successfully achieves. You can read more about this in his interview brochure, found at the beginning of the exhibition.
One interesting point for me was the inclusion of interactive technology through a game a viewer can walk through (via a PlayStation controller). The scene bathed the room in red, and also highlighted Banton's own digital work as intentionally 'imperfect' rather than clean and mathematical-- his personal touch and the construction of his work is instrumental in it's impact. I think it also allowed for an interaction between art and the digital landscape that will grip younger audiences, as well as inspire them to immerse themselves in the artistic vision of Banton.
My favorite element of the exhibition were the woodblock prints along the wall-- they are painted and decorated in their own right, reversing expectations of process and outcome, and each gave me a different intensity of emotion through the stories they told. The wolf, mouth agape and alien as it stares startled at the viewer struck a chord with me due to its emotional power (some of which came from the deep blue the piece sets itself within: I was reminded of Mark Rothko, and how emotional his canvases of colour are).
I think it's integral to have these gallery spaces available to university students; it's a disassociation act, where you're able to enter the mind of an artist and experience something other than the university routine, even if just for a moment.
Overall, I would rate my experience 5/5 stars! Banton's work is inspiring, evocative and emotionally charged, and I would definitely be interested to see if he has anything in store for future exhibitions.
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