![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/CURRENTSEE-3.jpg\")
Currentsee 3 (2018)<\/p>\n Currentsee 3 (2018)<\/p>\n
\u201cI am the white male, there\u2019s no disputing that,\u201d says British artist James Ostrer over the phone. \u201cI completely understand my position within the global context. I have an awareness of my own privilege to even be able to do what I am doing.\u201d It\u2019s from this maligned perspective that Ostrer has created the work for his latest exhibition, <\/span>Johnny Just Came \u2014 <\/span><\/i>a mix of large scale installation, semi-permanent sculpture, photography and video \u2014\u00a0 curated by Azu Nwagbogu and currently on display at London\u2019s Gazelli Art House. Taking on the contemporary white male tendency toward greed and corruption, Ostrer considers the exhibition to be \u201ca portrait of our time\u201d.<\/span> This first visit to Lagos filled Ostrer with \u201ca huge amount of fear\u201d, he explains, after reading various horror stories of kidnappings at gunpoint, and he consulted with many friends before finally boarding the flight. In fact, the exhibition\u2019s title, <\/span>Johnny Just Came<\/span><\/i>, is a play on the common phrase \u2014 \u201cJohnny just come\u201d \u2014 used to describe an African man who has just arrived in Euro-American cities. Ostrer, as a reversed \u201cJohnny just come\u201d, reveals that he acted like \u201c a bit of a diva\u201d when his pre-arranged driver didn\u2019t turn up and he refused to take a taxi from the airport. However, after spending an undramatic week in the Nigerian city, his fear soon dissipated, giving way to intrigue.<\/span> \u201cInitially, I started collecting with two people, who I paid ten dollars an hour, which is obviously more than the minimum wage in London or Berlin. By the following day, however, I wanted increasing amounts of flip-flops and realised I needed more people. One of the first people who I employed became like a middle-man, and then it became like a corporation where I was at the top and detached from what was happening on the beach.\u201d For Ostrer, the quick and unsavoury metamorphosis of the project \u201cunderpinned\u201d <\/span>Johnny Just Came<\/span><\/i>. \u201cBoth emotionally and in terms of behaviour; I position myself as a left-leaning artist, but within a 24-hour period I became the type of person I might be critical about in my work.\u201d<\/span> It\u2019s a shocking piece of work that is equal parts hideous and compelling. Surrounding \u201cthe chief\u201d are five smaller portraits of grotesquely feminine forms \u2014 all protruding bosoms and fishnet stockings \u2014 bound and tethered \u201cto create a sense of control\u201d. According to Ostrer, this aspect of the exhibition represents a contrast between traditionally masculine traits of domination and greed and what he regards to be more commonly feminine qualities of \u201ccommunity, love and sharing\u201d. \u00a0\u201cWe need to focus on these attributes if we are going to move forwards in terms of how we interrelate with different people around the world,\u201d he posits.<\/span> Much like his previous series, <\/span>Wotsit All About<\/span><\/i> und <\/span>Eco System<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Johnny Just Came<\/span><\/i>, demonstrates a keen engagement with the push-pull of the grotesque. Ostrer\u2019s work is often beautifully rendered, but at the same time undeniably disgusting in its raw corporeality and coarse primitivism. When asked about this aspect of his art, Ostrer compares it to a car accident \u2014 \u201cwhy do people stop to look? Humans are trained to look at beautiful things, but we are also attracted to visual disturbance\u201d. Visual disturbance is certainly one way to describe his video, <\/span>Snuffling for Love Truffles<\/span><\/i>, also on display. Here, the artist has stitched himself into a suit indelicately crafted out of pig skin, even donning the fleshy snout and tissue of a pig\u2019s head as a gruesome mask. In this vile and visceral costume, he munches pepperoni pizza and watches porn off a desktop computer. According to Ostrer, it is \u201ca portrait of self-annihilation\u201d. A little heavy-handed, perhaps, but who are we to argue?<\/span> We meet the British artist causing a stir with his repellent critique of his own white privilege.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66314,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11856,139],"tags":[4042,38,10725,1375,946,10726,10727,154,1416,10728,10729],"class_list":["post-66303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sleek-art","category-art","tag-africa","tag-art","tag-azu-nwagbogu","tag-contemporary-art","tag-installation","tag-james-ostrer","tag-lagos","tag-photography","tag-sculpture","tag-white-male-artist","tag-wotsit-all-about"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\n
\nIt\u2019s certainly a curious position from which to critique the major problems of Western civilisation, which are so often brought about by the immoral practices of white men in power. Ostrer is critiquing from the inside, as a culprit \u2014 he\u2019s part of the problem and he knows it. The work on display was prompted by a trip he took to Lagos, Nigeria in 2015. He went at the behest of Nwagbogu, who was impressed by the artist’s previous series, <\/span>Wotsit All About<\/span><\/i> \u2014 a selection of portraits depicting figures covered in a sticky selection of sugary substances (including frosting, ice-cream cones, rainbow sprinkles and chocolate bars) to critique the widespread addiction to junk food and sugar \u2014 and invited Ostrer to exhibit at the LagosPhoto festival.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/950x350-white-solid-color-background-1-1.jpg\")
L: Currentsee 1 (2018); R: End of Everything (2018)<\/p>\n
\nIt was Ostrer\u2019s newfound confidence in Lagos that triggered the enormous installation that serves as the backbone of the London show: an<\/span>\u00a0expansive collection of flip-flops, found along Lagos\u2019 beaches, stud the gallery walls, resembling marble slabs in shades spanning indigo to turquoise. Ostrer found his first flip-flop \u2014 a child\u2019s Prada sandal, incidentally \u2014 on Lighthouse Beach and, with the help of locals, quickly amassed a vast supply. At the time, the migrant crisis dominated international news and \u201cseeing a flip-flop washed-up on the beach immediately created a sense of emotional loss,\u201d explains Ostrer. \u201cYou just have to think of the infamous image of the dead child on the beach\u201d. However, what began as a poignant pursuit, unexpectedly transformed into, what the artist calls, \u201ca microcosm of the commodities trade in Africa\u201d . \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/BOMBAY-BEACH-C.jpg\")
Bombay Beach C (2018)<\/p>\n
\nIt is at this peculiar turn that the show becomes interesting. Ostrer is not criticising from a place of remove, but recognises himself \u2014 as a privileged white male \u2014 to be a perpetrator of greed and corruption, albeit unintentionally. At the heart of the exhibition is a lurid photographic portrait of a \u201cwhite male chief\u201d resting upon a makeshift throne engineered out of fishing net and a mattress. He sits with his legs apart \u2014 a classic example of manspreading, surely \u2014 with an animal skull and a skirt of shimmery silver fish concealing his modesty. His legs, arms and torso are crudely smeared in scarlet shapes and patterns \u2014 possibly the blood of his unfortunate subjects \u00a0\u2014 and rope encircles his throat and ankles in menacing coils. A closer look at his face reveals a meaty mess of animal innards, fish flesh and flip-flops; red twine dribbles from his mouth in oozy ribbons; the head and tail of a fish take the place of ears. <\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/CURRENTSEE-5.jpg\")
Currentsee 5 (2018)<\/p>\n
\nAlong with the photographs, Ostrer exhibits a number of sculptures that resemble eye-popping re-workings of the totems and effigies strewn across art history. One such piece, <\/span>Beginning of Everything<\/span><\/i>, presents a primitively sculpted bust with impasto layers of paint, positioned atop a flamboyantly patterned plinth. Two enormous gold cylindrical shapes emerge from its head like giant alien antennae, in front of which sit two real pig\u2019s ears. With these works, Ostrer hopes to enter into a conversation about the \u201cgenealogy of ancient art\u201d and \u201ccontemporary symbolism\u201d, representative by the choice of African textiles covering the plinths and in the multifarious substances that the sculptures consist of, including 24-carat gold, human teeth and magazine cuttings of AK-47 assault rifles. <\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/950x350-white-solid-color-background-4.jpg\")
L: Beginning of Everything (2018); R: Tulips and Two Lips (2018)<\/p>\n
\nEven if at times the overall approach is a bit ham-fisted \u2014 if you’ll pardon the pun \u2014 you\u2019ve got to admire this white male artist (even if it pains you to do so) for taking the time to self-reflect and recognise his overall complicity in a global regime of avarice and over-consumption. He acknowledges the irony of an exhibition commenting on the world\u2019s inequalities\u00a0being held in a swanky Mayfair gallery, which is selling his\u00a0work at high prices. But ultimately, Ostrer wants to create art that summons positive transformation \u2014 through pieces that are as \u201cbrutal as they are beautiful\u201d. The process starts with himself: \u201cI make work to make changes in myself,\u201d he says.\u201cI\u2019ve opened up a whole continent in terms of where I want to visit, spend time, make work, meet new people and learn more about the history of the world from a perspective that isn\u2019t a white male perspective\u201d. When asked what he hopes viewers will take away from <\/span>Johnny Just Came<\/span><\/i>, his response is as grand as it is earnest: \u201cI hope that we become a fairer society where people at the top consider everyone else more\u201d.<\/span>
\nJohnny Just Came<\/a> is Gazelli Art House, London until July 22, 2018.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"