The Real Me

“From Derek Jarman’s dystopian vision of the future in Jubilee (1977) through to Stephen Frears’ more celebratory depiction of multiracial, multisexual Britain in My Beautiful Launderette (1987), the decade from the late 1970s to the late 1980s marked a radical shift in the social and cultural urban fabric of Britain for which London was the central stage. The dissonant tones of the Sex Pistols’ irreverent reworking of the national anthem ‘God Save the Queen’ and The Clash’s ‘London Calling’ were the discordant theme tunes of a changing society where the comforting rhetoric of ‘one nation’ Britain had become fractured not only by the three-day working week and the souring of relations between government and trade unions but equally by the changing face of its cities and the experience of its citizens. At the same time as conflicts were erupting on the streets of the metropolis from Notting Hill to Wapping (ostensibly between representatives of the state and its citizens), London was forging a new identity which was to become synonymous with the multiple identities of its inhabitants and their interrelationships.” Gilane Tawadros, from Rob Bowman and Jens Hoffman (eds), London in Six Easy Steps, London: ICA Exhibitions, 2005.

For the exhibition London in Six Easy Steps (16 August–25 September 2005), six London-based curators, including Gilane Tawadros, were invited to represent their interpretation of the current artistic and cultural life of London. Each curator was asked to organize a week-long exhibition in the Lower Gallery of the ICA, identifying the shifting realities that make up the city from their particular perspective. ‘The Real Me’ was the fifth exhibition and was presented at the ICA, London between 13 and 18 September 2005. Participating artists were: Rasheed Araeen, Black Audio Film Collective, Sonia Boyce, Mona Hatoum, Barbara Kruger and Robert Mapplethorpe.