The Unmapped Body: 3 Black British Artists (review)

REVIEW T H E U N M A PPED BOD Y: 3 BLA CK BRITISH ARTISTS So m a Boyce, / Wan t To See It, 1998, video inst allat ion, courtesy of t h e Yale University Ar t Gallery Yale Universit y Ar t Gallery "The ver y t er m Bl ac k Br i t i sh m akes it ob vi ous t hat the defi ni t i on of i den t i t y, w i t hi n the l oc al i t y of an ant agoni st i c m aj or i t y c ul t ur e in w hi c h m i nor i t i es are pot ent i al l y pi t t ed agai nst eac h ot h er , is not r eal i zabl e t hr ough r ac i al and r egi onal c at egor i zat i on . Yet, the em pl oym ent of a possi bly hom ogeni zi ng si gni fi er l i ke Bl ac k Br i t i sh for so m any et hni c al l y and c u l t u r al l y di ver se c om m uni t i es andgeogr aphi es i n vi t es, on the sur fac e, the possi bl e d i savow al of the pl ur al i t y of i dent i t i es w i t hi n t hi s b od y. Despi t e t hi s dan ger , one has to adm i t t hat t hi s shar ea'r esponsi bi l i t y has a pol i t i c al if not c ul t ur al m er i t .. .At its m ost m et aphor i c and pr ac t i c al , Bl ac k Br i t i sh is l oaded w i t h the opposi t i onal for c e of t r ansc endenc e in w hi c h Afr i c an , Car i bbean, and Asi an i dent i t i es c oul d c onc ei vabl y c ol l abor at e for a c onc er t ed and engaged pol i t i c al at t i t ude t ow ar ds c ul t ur al pr oduc t i on. "' The trend of exhibiting contemporary art under formulas based on the i n tersection of artistic, national, and et hnic identities, is onerous. Yet the agenda and the semantics of the Yale exhibit, "The Unmapped Body: Three Black British Artists" seemed less dubious than in the standard program of the mega- survey show. Perhaps this was due to the small- scale of the exhibition, f ocusing on three artists whose works are historically linked to the context of the 80s art world in London. The art of Keith Piper, Sonia Boyce, and Sutapa Biswas all of whom work in London and are here positioned underthe rubric Black British Art - is inspired by a specific movement of artists and filmakers (BLK Art Group, Sankofa, Black Audio Film Collective) i n terested in visual culture's resignification of "Brit ishness" and "Blackness." The historical approach to the identificatory politics and aesthetics which guide the work of Piper, Boyce, and Biswas, rescues "The Unmapped Body" from collapsing into the genealogy of American essentialist politics- of- identity - themed shows. "The Unmapped Body" seems centered on the act of mapping; an operation of framing subjectivity specific to the cultural politics of Thatcherite England. This signals a massed activist and aesthetic political program — a historical charting of territories and bodies t hat had been disavowed in the nationalist narrative of Britain. Keith Piper was represented in the Yale Gallery by his 1998 CD- Rom projection entitled Message Car r i er . The title of the piece speaks to the lesson of which the artist notes on the wall text t hat "...t he...