Art installation offers a taste of the East End
31st October 2008
Brick Lane may be a popular destination for chicken curry and rice, but a stunning new art installation opposite the entrance to the world famous street uses the classic combination to explore the history and culture of the East End.
Artist Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva constructed the work, We Are Shadows, entirely from rice and halal chicken skins at London Metropolitan University’s Unit 2 Gallery,
during August and September. Hadzi-Vasileva has previously produced
work using materials as diverse as pig fat, cows stomachs and butter.
The chicken skins, which she has laboriously stitched together were
supplied by Pak Butchers, a halal butchers.
In transforming or creating interventions in particular locations
such as forests, lakes, sea coasts and forts, Elpida’s work offers the
viewer an expansive sensory experience in terms of its scale, fragility
and physicality. Her use of materials from the ‘natural’ world such as
trees, water, fish, bones, animal skins, watercress and butter, make
smell, commonly associated with memory, an active part of experiencing
her installations.
We are Shadows continues with the artist’s interest in
site in terms of history and culture. Unit 2 is located opposite what
could be considered to be the East End’s most famous street, Brick
Lane. This area of the East End is renowned for having become, at
various times, home to various generations of immigrants - from
Huguenots and Irish to Jewish and more recently Bangladeshi
communities. For Elpida, this location represents something of a
fascination because she herself migrated from Macedonia to Britain in
the early 1990s. Therefore, Elpida is all too aware that below the
surface of what is frequently celebrated as a ‘multi-cultural’
environment exists histories and lives of communities imbued with the
realities of loss, struggle, conflict and survival.
We are Shadows is open until 1 November.