New Walk Museum & Art Gallery, Leicester produced Don't look back! I told you So by Chien-Wei Chang 11 February - 25 March 2012 and Negotiations: Black in a white majority culture by Maggie Scott 7 April - 20 May 2012
Curators Kathy Fawcett and Hugo Worthy were both on the Steering Group of the shape of things and they also hosted Rezia Wahid's Woven Air at the City Gallery, Leicester (now closed) in September 2009
'None of the audiences saw the exhibition as a craft show, but rather as fine art; the level of specific issue-based politics being exhibited was not associated with craft, which is what made 'the shape of things'programme very exciting. The exhibitions extended our crafts audiences and our audiences from diverse communities – which is exactly what we wanted.' Hugo Worthy, curator
Artists' statement
'To create this brand new body of work especially for the exhibition has been something of a psychological and analytical process for me. I have welcomed the chance to review every single step in my life and creative path. Don’t look back! I told you so is actually almost a self-conversation, like an inner-dialogue of saying farewell, making a closure and moving on to a new chapter of my life. I certainly believe life is not just about finding the answer. It is essentially a journey of hope towards the unknown. Maybe sometimes it leads us into the territory of discouragement, loss, despair, or pain, but we also learn how to forgive, share and love through our common bonds of humanity.' Chien-Wei Chang
'The shape of things bursary enabled me to develop her work in new directions. In Negotiations, Black in a White Majority Culture, I presented powerful wall mounted images that focus on identity, ethnicity and representation.
These new works engage with photography as a site of personal memory and historical events. The Black British experience of displacement, inequality and marginalisation, and the internalised racism which often dictates the ways in which black people negotiated their place within the white majority culture. My textiles are all made by hand with printed images on silk that are then Nuno felted and hand stitched.
‘Out of the shadows’ was an installation on skin lightening. To have an opportunity to broaden the dialogue and challenge the view that the desire to lighten one’s skin and be as white as possible is about "personal choice", or is the same as white people going to the tanning booth, could not to be missed!' Maggie Scott
‘I was completely blown away by those pictures and very, very moved. The work involved was mind boggling and the content just heartbreaking in some instances, and angry making in others. Just amazing!’ member of the public
Catalogues
The catalogues below have essays by Kathy Fawcett and Frances Lord, and an interview with Maggie Scott by Liza Cody
