Exhibition

Hetain Patel: Trinity

3 Aug 2021 – 30 Oct 2021

Regular hours

Monday
Closed
Tuesday
10:00 – 17:00
Wednesday
10:00 – 17:00
Thursday
10:00 – 17:00
Friday
10:00 – 17:00
Saturday
10:00 – 17:00
Sunday
Closed

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John Hansard Gallery

Southampton
England, United Kingdom

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  • Southampton Central
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John Hansard Gallery is pleased to present Trinity, the largest solo exhibition to date by artist Hetain Patel.

About

Trinity is also the title for an ambitious new film by Patel, the final part of a film trilogy that will be premiered at John Hansard Gallery. Working with dance, martial arts and sign language collaborators, and with a specially composed score Trinity represents Patel’s most significant and developed film work so far.

Alongside Patel’s new moving image work, Trinity (2021)John Hansard Gallery will also show the first two acclaimed films from the trilogy: Don’t Look at the Finger (2017) and The Jump (2015) bringing together the different facets of the rich filmic world the artist has been creating over the past five years. The exhibition will also feature a number of related new sculptural works, which incorporate costumes, and action figures of the films’ characters, as well as a film merchandise ‘Gift Shop’.

Patel’s new film Trinity, continues his exploration of language and physical communication, centring on the discovery of a martial language that once united humanity. Interspersed with visual references from his life – both his artistic practice and his Indian cultural heritage, the film features two women – a young British Indian woman (played by Vidya Patel) and a young Deaf garage worker (played by Raffie Julien) – engaging in a fight, creating a unique physical language weaving together martial arts and sign language, created with ongoing collaborators, the fight choreographer Chirag Lukha and Deaf artist and writer Louise Stern. A coming of age story intermingled with supernatural references, Trinity transforms traditional Indian practices with a recognisably Hollywood approach, employing an epic soundtrack and fight choreography. The film explores the representation of the British Indian experience on screen, emphasising the female voice, intergenerational conflict and the truth that our bodies hold beyond language, foregrounding a strong sense of hope.

The Jump (2015) connects the widely recognised fantasy of Hollywood action and superhero films with the domestic setting of Patel’s own British Indian family in the UK. Featuring Patel’s homemade movie replica Spider-Man costume, this two sided video installation shows two different perspectives of the same super slow motion jumping action, so much so that it is almost like a moving photograph. Featuring 17 of Patel’s family members, The Jump is shot in Patel’s grandmother’s home, the house where he and his immigrant relatives lived at various points since 1967, and where his late grandmother stayed until she died in 2017.

Utilising the characteristic humour that Patel is known for, perfectly showcasing the struggle between responsibility and identity, the semi-autobiographical film installation creates an immersive cinematic experience that is both playful and sinister.

Don’t Look at the Finger (2017) is an exploration of the highly-styled genre conventions of Hong Kong martial arts films and how they have permeated mainstream films via the directors of Quentin Tarantino and Ang Lee, and blockbuster films like The Matrix (1999, The Wachowskis). It is also a reminder of how some of the highly specific signature symbols of historical cultural traditions and languages can become interestingly blurred and entangled in today’s hybrid and eclectic visual landscape. The work is deeply influenced by Kung Fu master, Bruce Lee who, in a memorable scene from Enter the Dragon (1973, dir. Robert Clouse) warns the viewer to never be distracted by a finger that is pointing at something, just in case we miss what it is actually pointing at.

Hetain Patel’s exhibition is presented in partnership with New Art Exchange, Nottingham, and will be shown there in early 2022. Trinity has been financially supported by Arts Council England, John Hansard Gallery, New Art Exchange, Sadler’s Wells, Gulbenkian, Motwani Jadeja Family Foundation, British Art Show 9, and produced by Tilt Films.

Exhibiting artistsToggle

Hetain Patel

Taking part

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