We Face Forward

I popped into Manchester City Art Gallery this week to watch Turner-Prize nominated Spartacus Chetwynd's video installation "Art in Hard Times". Along with his bunch of merry men, Chetwynd's walks in David Copperfield's shoes from London to Dover, taking snaps along the way, on a real-film proper camera. There are also long stretches of video documenting the hundred or so miles walk. The installation was accompanied by a sprinkling of Victorian social type paintings of the poverty stricken people of the poor houses and the glorious middle classes, notably William Powell Frith's Derby Day. However this rather small show was overwhelmed by the current We Face Forward; Art From West Africa Today exhibition- one that challenges culture and change in Africa. Various installations appear throughout the gallery, interrupting the expected displays of proper British museum practice. Shocking and thought provoking, I liked Romuald Hazoumè's oil can masks- challenging a western view of the people and cultures of Africa. Well worth a visit.