Climate change at Royal Academy
WORKS AT THE SUMMER EXHIBITION, INCLUDING THOSE BY ASIAN ARTISTS, FOCUS ON SAVING THE PLANET
THE Royal Academy’s (RA) Summer Exhibition is usually a Patel-free zone, but this time I was pleased to note two have come along – Ashwin Patel and Vikash Prabhat Patel, with their respective works, Ice Departure in pencil and ink and Sun Sap in graphite.
The theme for 2022 is “climate”, picked by the sculptor Amanda Wilding who has coordinated the exhibition, helped by eight committee members. Out of nearly 15,000 submissions, nearly 1,500 were selected for display.
One of the committee, Grayson Perry, invited the Singh Twins, Amrit and Rabindra, to submit a work. The resulting
Because You’re Worth It? (digital dyed fabric lightbox), part of their Slaves of Fashion
series, is prominently displayed. They have written in words such as Deforestation, Food Insecurities, Global Warming, Displacement of Communities, Air and Water Pollution and Land Right Violations to make sure their message is not missed.
The Large Weston Room that is kept exclusively for architecture has seen something novel this year.
The RA’s secretary and CEO, Axel Rüger, said two Royal Academicians, Níall McLaughlin and Rana Begum, whose respective disciplines are architecture and fine art, “have combined forces”.
Begum told Eastern Eye she had invited the Bangladeshi artist, Marina Tabassum , to build a typical shelter against floods and the rising sea level – this is Khudi Bari (tiny house), a mobile modular house made from bamboo, metal joints, corrugated steel sheets and film.
“What’s amazing is how this construction can be flat-packed and moved,” she pointed out. “It’s something that allows people to move around, depending on the way that the landscape changes.”
Nearby is one of Begum’s own trademark works – a fishing net spray painted yellow and crimson.
There is also Brick Kiln, Gujarat, a print from a digital file, by Crispin Hughes.
I made a note of A Crack in the Idyll by Piali Das Gupta and Roelant’s Dodo by Jhuma Sharma Roy. Roelant Savery did a painting, now famous, of the dodo in the late 1620s, which is the Natural History Museum collection.
To enter the main entrance of the Royal Academy in Piccadilly, you go through the Annenberg Courtyard where an oasis of greenery – Wet Labyrinth (with spontaneous landscape) – has been put up by the Spanish artist Christina Iglesias.
But as Rüger remarked, “there’s nothing spontaneous about the vegetation. It’s all been meticulously constructed and planted, but it looks very, very natural. It is a beautiful environment that talks about the tension between the natural environment and our need to experience nature among the bustle of the inner city.”
I did wonder, though, why something as unattractive as a rotting lemon had been chosen for this year’s poster. The work,
Bad Lemon, is by the New York artist Kathleen Ryan, who was invited by Begum to make the submission.
It turned out to be probably my favourite exhibit. It’s a large lemon-shaped foam, decorated on the surface by “aventurine, serpentine, agate, quartz, Ching Hai jade, red malachite, hematite, jasper, rose quartz, carnelian, onyx, mother of pearl, freshwater pearl, bone, acrylic, glass, and steel pins on coated polystyrene”.
It’s worth going to the Summer Exhibition just to see this. The green represents the rotting part of the lemon.
Begum, who has Bad Lemon in the room she has done with McLaughlin, explained: “It represents what is happening with the planet in a way, doesn’t it? It’s so precious – and we’re trying to find ways to save it.”
Mclaughin said architects were thinking of putting up more buildings in wood instead of cement because that used much less energy. Also, wood can last a long time if protected from the rain and the sun.
On diversity, where the RA has made some attempt to catch up this year, he joked: “I am Irish, Rana is Bangladeshi – we are ‘home’ foreigners.”
After two years of being pushed back to the autumn, the Summer Exhibition, which has been going for 254 years, is back in its normal June slot.
Incidentally, Perry’s own submission is a Covid Bell in bronze.
Rüger remarked: “Grayson Perry specifically made the Covid Bell to commemorate and celebrate everyone who has worked so hard during the pandemic. And, of course, to commemorate those who have passed away, the bell will be rung once an hour on the hour. And we will invite members of the public to do so.”
■ The Summer Exhibition, at the Royal Academy, sponsored by Insight Investment, runs until August 21