While there are plenty of exhibitions in London - one of which we’ve been to recently, there’s also plenty of exhibitions and ‘culture’ outside of the capital, and that’s something we’re still exploring. Since we’ve lived in Nottinghamshire though, I think we’ve been to more concerts and such, which given we practically lived on the O2’s doorstep in Greenwich is pretty odd! I think here we’re actively looking for things to explore as we build our new lives, but all of that is made so much easier by the institutions here putting on such great programmes.
Anyway, while my car was in for its service and MOT we decided to catch the bus into Nottingham and spend the day there. We weren’t sure which bus exactly, but the garage pointed us in the right direction and on both journeys we had to run for the bus, so that was a bonus too.
I’d spotted the Two Steps at a Time exhibition at the Nottingham Contemporary in a magazine and had added the exhibition dates to my calendar, so that was just the prompt I needed to sort out something a little different. I also signed us up to the ‘Wednesday Walkthrough’ session where we were led through more details about the artist by an art expert, at this session Sheyda Aisha Khaymaz an artist, curator and PhD Candidate in Art History at the University of Texas at Austin.
After completing the more usual tasks of shopping and checking out items for potential future online purchases, and then grabbing a coffee we set off to find the Nottingham Contemporary. It’s a fairly brutalist piece of architecture, and one we hadn’t seen before - however when we arrived we realised we’d probably been less than a few hundred feet away from it on most of our visits to the city. Even better was we’re getting our bearings and knew this just by looking at our surroundings - it’s great when that happens and you start to find your way around a new place naturally isn’t it?
NOTTINGHAM CONTEMPORARY
I knew nothing of the artist before we booked our spaces, but learnt from the website blurb that Hamid Zenati (b 1944 Algeria; d 2022 Germany) was a self-taught and prolific artist working across many surfaces including textiles, fashion and ceramics and more.
This exhibition is the second-ever showing of his nearly sixty year career and the first in the UK - and from the images on the website I knew we were in for a feast of colour.
It was great to hear more about the artist, and the talk was busy with up to thirty people also attending, which the organisers clearly welcomed. I’ll not share much more about the artist or the talk, but we enjoyed both - I’ve realised lately that I’m very much a visual person (it’s not really a surprise tbh), so I’ll leave you (mostly anyway) to enjoy my favourite pictures.
The gallery with the textiles was my favourite of the two spaces. They were hung at varying levels from the super high space and that also provided movement, and being able to get up so close was unexpected, as was being able to walk through (literally) the pieces - though of course people were respecting them and ducking to avoid any contact.
The piece at the centre top of the image above is I think my favourite piece of the exhibition. I’m not sure if that’s because it captured your attention as soon as you walked in through its height or its colours, but it’s the one I kept coming back to - and there were plenty in here that I liked.
The boldness of the pieces was amazing, and perhaps this is attributed to being self taught and not needing to follow the rules, or perhaps it’s just what it is and what needed to come out! He didn’t document much of his work at all, so there’s no sure way of knowing - which again means you can make up your own mind, as can I.
The one below was close to being my favourite, for the colours. I can imagine that making a lovely summer dress! Which isn’t as mad or sacrilegious as it sounds, as the gallery staff were wearing his designs. I’m not sure how they felt about it, but it was a fab touch to bring the art to life.
I’ll share one final textile, this one had me captivated during the first part of the talk. It was in my direct eye line and I found myself wondering if they were whales or just fish. They could be either I guess.
This last picture is the one the MOH was most taken with. It’s in the second gallery where there’s more ceramics and even more textiles, though smaller ones which are laid out on plinths. It too follows the ‘fill the space’ approach which isn’t something I’m against. I too love the bold colours, and would happily have a pair of matching, or at least complementary, vases like this on our half-stair landing - though I’d be worried about them bouncing down the stairs unaided.
It’s great to find exhibitions such as this locally, I’m glad I spotted it and that we were able to go and enjoy it - I’m sure we’ll be back to the Nottingham Contemporary, and I’m pretty sure there’s much more in Nottingham and around for us to discover.
