Repeat After Me

About

The war to end all wars that weren't. WW1. The supposed dawn of a peaceful age foreshadowed instead a century of repeated conflict; global migration; technology; memory; megalomaniacs; murderers; mercenaries and money makers.

In “Repeat After Me”, an exhibition held on the weekend marking the centenary of the Armistice, seven artists from diverse disciplines wrestle with what the fall out of The Great War has meant for our age.

On show are works including film, poetry, photography, painting and sculpture. Hard hitting pieces, like David Wood’s arresting Holocaust mini-film, contrast with the emotionally moving but silently still paintings of Susan Hamer. Maslen & Mehra + Shuby and Delete make a political comment about the beneficiaries of war. John See explores propaganda, while Susan Harbage Page from the US highlights issues of border control and human displacement. Andy Masheter carries the flag in the poetic tradition of the WW1 poets and Rachel Williams muses on conflict, megalomania and our little boy soldier Kim Jong Un.

WW1 changed the world permanently. Out went the stifling age of corsets and in came, slowly at first, emancipation for women. A less rigid society then, but with greater turbulence in our domestic lives, for good and ill. The old norms overturned with every passing generation as we rush headlong into Big Brother’s era. Comfortable ornateness discarded for brutalist architecture, minimalism and the repetitive video age. Some say a more classless society emerged, but money is the new divider providing arms for the “follow me” despots, influencing governments and creating an ever-increasing wealth/poverty gap. That is the legacy.

What will history say about the 20th and 21st centuries? One thing is for sure. The influence of art and the artists we task with explaining the world as it unfolds has never been more vital. Gone are the days when art imitated life, Now the converse is true, as artists like Banksy engage with the world of commerce and politics in a way never before seen. So we watch and wait for the next development. Repeat After Me…