Transmission,
Glasgow until October 20th
Four
stars
The
neon sign in Transmission’s window offers a warm welcome to Rabiya Choudhry’s
world for her first solo exhibition following appearances in group shows at
Tramway and Dundee Contemporary Arts. Simply called Dad (2018), the sign is a
nod to both Choudhry’s own family, and to the wider Scots-Pakistani diaspora her
work stems from, and whose ubiquitous local shops have become an essential part
of everyday culture over the last half century or so.
There
are more echoes of this inside in the array of dresses, ties and purses printed
up with some of Choudhry’s distinctive cartoon-style bombs-and-black-cloud
iconography from her paintings and hung here on open-all-hours market-stall
rails. This makes for a playfully personal exploration of an east/west culture
clash that all but bursts through the explosions of colour that free-associate
their way out of the accompanying nine paintings like cartoon demons being
purged.
Eyes
are everywhere in Choudhry’s work, staring out from an angry-looking brain in
Black Temple (2014), which personifies a scary looking place of worship with a
tongue for an entrance and Edenesque snakes in the grass beyond. Eyes are there
too in Houses for the Holy (2016), staring in judgement at anyone who dares to
cross the house’s threshold. And there they are again in Rosemary’s Baby (2012)
alongside snarling teeth and an electrified tail as vivid greens and reds
clash. Elsewhere, a combat-helmeted canine-looking tank ploughs through a
bone-strewn battlefield and bombs are lined up like space invaders, while Freud
would have a field day with the Numbskulls-referencing Dream Baby Dream (2016).
At
times the poster-like immediacy of the paintings resembles the pop-street art
of Jean-Michel Basquiat or Keith Haring, but in colours as brash as a Bollywood
poster advertising comic book horror video-nasties. In this way COCO!NUTS! is a
fearlessly honest warts-and-all display of vulnerability which becomes a vivid
show of political and personal strength.
The List, October 2018
ends
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