ID: a billboard of two artworks on a London street. One artwork is of a seated woman, the second is of a man in a beret.
In episode 6, I interviewed Cultural Researcher and Curator Tanaka Saburi about billboard project Molasses Gallery, BLM and promoting black creativity. Birmingham born Saburi reveals how his previous career as a Tailor on Saville Row informs his curatorial practice.
Here are some images from the project, Tanaka's top tips and links to further reading. Enjoy!
Transcript with definitions
Molasses Gallery, 'Undivided Divinity', 2020
ID: the billboards around London
Tanaka's top tips
1 CONSTANTLY ADAPT
Bingeing movies was very much a big part of my quarantine experience and I remember the words of Tom Cruise’s Hitman Character, Vincent when he realised his assassination attempt had been botched by circumstance .
Vincent: "we're onto Plan B. Still breathing? Now we gotta make the best of it, improvise, adapt to the environment, Darwin, shit happens, I Ching, whatever man, we gotta roll with it.”
After being told I had a 8 day window to complete what seemed like a colossal task this is all I thought about. As long as I took each task as it came and planned what was next I could deal with unfortunate hindrances.
2 “GOOD CURATORS SHOULD UTILISE ARTISTS, IN THE SAME WAY ARTISTS UTILISE PAINT”
The French word "Dénouement” allowed me to understand that the artist isn’t the curator, I could not let the whole narrative be overruled by the individual. I had to construct a visual narrative that stayed true and I couldn’t waver from the vision of it when it was completed.
3 "Give into Flights of Fancy”
It’s fine to let your imagination run wild when surmising what you want to achieve from an exhibition. Even though some of your wishes won’t come to fruition without hope that they might, your motivation might be deterred to try.
4 “Embrace your guilty pleasures especially if they’re NOT from the art world”
There’s something intangibly important about method acting as a layman. That adds depth to your exhibitions appeal and authenticity. I found immersing myself with pop culture whilst brainstorming really helped me understand the palette of a gallery goer. Harry Styles's "watermelon sugar" song on repeat and countless episodes of “The Crown” helped me not approach the narrative like just another art activism campaign. It helped me sculpt something a little more culturally innocuous.
5 "Stealing references is not plagiarism, it's pastiche if you do it properly”
I wasn’t afraid to look at the quotes and the historic movements of my favourite artists and use them as my inspiration. After adaptation of course but I didn’t feel the pressure to be the first to do this. I just needed to curate from an aspirational standpoint. Noah Davis, Kerry James Marshall, Henry Taylor , Sam Gilliam , Faith Ringgold , Chris Ofili and most of all Arthur Jafa.
Five references
1 - READ / Manners Make A Nation : Racial Etiquette In Southern Rhodesia, Allison K Strutt.
2 - WATCH / First African Becomes Parliamentary Secretary.
( My Great Uncle becomes Africans first Politician) 3 - WATCH / Arthur Jafa's `APEX video
4 - READ / On Tyranny : twenty lessons from the 20th century, Timothy Snyder
5 - WATCH / Black Mother Black Daughter - sylvia hamilton 28 min film
Additional reading
Yes, Basquiat Is an Art-Market Superstar. But the Work of Other African American Artists Remains Vastly Undervalued Artnet 20/09/18
Whitney Cancels Museum Show of Mutual Aid Art After Artists Decry it as 'Predatory' Artnews 25/08/20
Speculation on Black Artists Has Gotten So Intense That for Christie’s Latest Sale, Its Curator Is Asking Buyers to Sign a Special Contract Artnet 13/08/20
“Developing more representative art collections could not be more urgent”: Dr Anjalie Dalal-Clayton on the need to diversify the narrative The Double Negative 14/10/20
Black Artists and Modernism Collections Audit, UAL 2015 - 2018
Stuart Hall, 'Unsettling 'the heritage', re-imagining the post-nation, Whose heritage?', 1999