Nigel Hinds, Creative Producer of the Cultural Olympiad at London 2012 described Rachel Gadsden’s extraordinary body of work as ‘a revelation’ at its opening last Friday 22nd June in Cambridge.
The Unlimited Global Alchemy premiere is one of the first of many events in the Festival 2012 calendar that will showcase our 12 artists on their journey to the Unlimited Festival in London in September.
Rachel was joined on Friday by two of her collaborators from South Africa, Nondumiso Hlwele and Thobani Ncapai from the Bambanani Group and PUSH ME was there to soak up their fine reunion at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology – the perfect setting for their work to be shown.
Flicking through the copy of the beautiful limited edition catalogue, hot off the press, we found a perfect quote from Colin Hambrook’s essay Rachel Gadsden Permission to Breathe.
Gadsden has developed a drawing style that literally gets under the skin, and to the very bones of human experience. It is as though in the rhythm of each brushstroke, lies a demand for permission to breathe.
In his short address to the assembled crowd, Thobani Ncapai spoke about this project and his visit to the UK as a lifetime achievement as well as a lifetime away from his life in South Africa when he was first diagnosed with HIV. Like Rachel, the Bambanani art group find a route through prejudice, misunderstanding using art to question and challenge.
Professor Anita Herle, Senior Curator from MAA spoke of the first time Rachel had contacted her in her search for Nondumiso, the artist behind the bodymap that had resounded so completely with Rachel’s personal experience and how wonderful it felt to host part of the culmination of this journey in the museum, showing the films and the art work.
UGA will be in situ in Cambridge until the 18th August and we’ll be sharing more about the UGA live performance on the 5th September in the Purcell Room on the South Bank when the piece goes into rehearsal.
Breathe, take heed and watch this space, there’s yet more treasure to be had from this extraordinary artist and her golden project.