Welcome Black, I am Red Exhibition Review
By Ebony Francis
I was fortunate to have caught Jacqueline Ennis-Cole’ penultimate night of “Welcome Black I am Red” in Brick Lane’s Dark Sugars. I decided to peruse the photographs which adorned the burgundy walls, displayed in a kind of ‘hide and seek’ fashion. Between the intoxicating smell of cacao and a dizzying display of photographs which looked like they were subject to the intense alchemy that the making of chocolate entails the interweaving of art and spiritual ritual was clear. Before I had even spoken to Jacqueline or heard Kershaw Lawrence’s beautifully intense and painfully moving tale I knew that I was in another dimension. Each photograph big or small made me feel like I was witnessing something “other”, the red masking tape running throughout dividing the walls further illustrating the separation and the link between the inner and outer worlds. “As above, so below” was how they spoke to me.
I sat and waited in anticipation for Jacqueline to come, pondering how accurately I had interpreted her work. With her natural exuberance and grace, she entered, hushed and humble and swiftly we were underway. The tale of Kershaw Lawrence who I had reduced to subject, protagonist and or performance artist, later became more clearly known to me as subject initiator, creator and catharsis generator. Kershaw’s background story was as intense as the air, with multiple “mental health diagnosis” thrown at him at such a tender age, he was a genuine expression of an artist, cultural dynamist and professed magic man and upon reading his own artist s statement it was even more obvious that what he would describe as an invading and almost debilitating blackness forcing its way through and beyond his own eyes was also magnificently juxtaposed against a sense of fear of seeing beyond, devoid of rationality and tied up in red lines, it was this that made this work even more affecting.
Jacqueline’s own struggles as an artist, her long social activist roots, the loss of her mother and brother and her own sense of being the other and their shared sense of a calling to see without being seen made the work, much more, raw and at times painful to grapple with. The desire to connect beyond his feelings of cultural estrangement, Kershaw’s fascination with his grandfather’s mythological practice as an Indigenous African Priest was evident and spoke to Jacqueline’s inner and direct experience with Indigenous Spiritual practices. Co-curated by artist and Hemanth Rao and artist Fiona Walsh and Jacqueline Ennis-Cole the images became a testimony to Kershaw’s own sense of play and investigation into not only his own mind but also his roots. The seeming hotchpotch nature in which each photograph was displayed coupled with the way Kershaw adorned himself gave a sense of masquerade, expressed through make-up, costume, jewellery and clothes, a daily practice that I was later to learn became much more elaborate and concealing as time went on though perhaps more of an expression of his vulnerability- the need for a thicker skin that a face covering was to provide than as a performative action.
Jacqueline talked of the organic way in which the the project had unfolded, the necessity she had felt to document with ‘care’ what she considered to be a pivotal turning point in Kershaw’s personal and professional life, the “coming into maturity” and the “going out into the world” was how she had described it. Having met at Art School the two connected through their shared experience and hardships and the project itself she described as more of an unfolding than an undertaking. She would document him over a period of time and the two were in agreement that he would not see any of the photographs until they were exhibited, this way he would not consciously or unconsciously perform for the camera or fear the prospect of performance itself resulting in a pageant rather than a revealing, she explained, a thing that I believe the two saw as crucial to the success of their partnership.
Why here? was my first question. The chocolate shop added to the overwhelming sensuality of the exhibition, and the history of ritual, roots and magic fit in perfectly with the history, ancestry and perception of the dark, bitter cacao that was produced from the sweet seeds encased in a pod seemingly not fit for this world let alone human consumption. Why no frames? was my second, well apart from the continuous debate between the traditional and the contemporary, Jacqueline said that Kershaw had been objectified enough, looked at from afar and these photographs suggested a more raw, intimate view of his everyday life, and she wished to support his metaphorical and literal process towards liberation. Why the masking tape? Was my last question, she laughed, what started out as a means to make sure that the pictures stood equally, evenly and this time with the industrial standard of 5’3” hanging level, the symbolism, the mirroring of the images and the layering of the world’s became more powerful, so then the line became red in line with Kershaw’s own views the red being below and the black as being above, an idea that struck me when I first entered the space and what became for me indicative of passion, rage, and earth chakra conceptual lens.
Jacqueline’s diverse and creative background in weaving, drawing and now photography was evident in this work, Kershaw’s own personality and their shared experiences wove their way through this chocolatier. The odd images of Kershaw’s sculptures, doorways or portals to “other places” fit in well with this place. I only wished that there were more, I only wished that he was there, my own fascination growing with each image of a different “version” of Kershaw. Still now after the photos have been peeled from the walls, the images, like Kershaw’s “blackness” permeate my mind’s eye. Like the warm cocoa we sipped at the end of our interview, the feeling I left with was warm, sweet, bitter and with a sense of something way beyond the mundane and everyday, a treat, a treat to have met them both, I thought.
