Detail of a painting from 'in the absence of justice..' exhibition by Ricky Romain.
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See the exhibition's mini website
Triarchy Press, in collaboration with Dartington Creative Enterprise and Arts and Business, is sponsoring an exhibition of paintings and works on paper by Ricky Romain, entitled 'in the absence of justice...'. The work will be exhibited from Thursday 7th December 2006 until 28th February 2007 at Tooks Chambers, 8 Warner Yard, London EC1R 5EY.
Amnesty International and BID (Bail for Immigration Detainees) will receive donations from the sales of Ricky Romain's work in lieu of a gallery commission. The start of the exhibition has been timed to coincide with International Human Rights Day.
The exhibition preview took place on 6th December 2006 at Tooks Chambers. The exhibition was opened by Michael Mansfield QC. Read about his impassioned plea for political art.
Ricky Romain's work evokes themes of asylum, migration, alienation and displacement. The artist approaches these subjects with human empathy rather than any particular political agenda. The images convey a profound human need for belonging, even amidst alienation; the shadowy liminality of Romain's figures suggests isolation and despair, while their postures of mutual support and collective identity celebrate the indefatigability of the human spirit.
The figures that appear on Romain's canvasses and across the pages of his sketchbooks are fictional and unbidden, spilling from his subconscious to haunt the spaces of his studio. Their location within the walls of a legal Chambers that advances justice and is eminently proactive in the protection of human rights will invite a consideration of the role of the visual arts in political struggles for equality and justice. These images neither document injustice nor prescribe a solution to it: but they challenge their audience to ask their own questions and find solace within intimations of solidarity and manifestations of masculine sensitivity.
'In the absence of justice...' leads into emotive subjects of otherness - labelling, alienation, migration, and asylum. It also plays into the seemingly removed topic of institutionalised alienation: who is in and who is out?
Bullying in the work place resonates with labelling the migrant worker. The disaffection and isolation of the whistle-blower connects into the alienation and victimisation of individuals driven out of their homeland because they dared to speak out. These are organizational issues - about how people live and work together.
Triarchy Press specialises in publications about organizations. We are planning a Seminar in early February, which will examine the relationship between a lack of justice in public and private sector organizations and a lack of justice within society as a whole and ask whether alienating and oppressive climates in places of work feed into the prejudices that lead to the persecution of individuals and the disregard for human rights by societies and governments.
Find out more about the exhibition and see some of the paintings in the exhibition's mini website.
Ricky Romain: www.rickyromain.com; www.axisweb.org/artist/rickyromain
Tooks Chambers: www.tooks.co.uk
Michael Mansfield: www.tooks.co.uk/people/mansfield_m.htm
Dartington Creative Enterprise: www.dartington.ac.uk/enterprise
Arts and Business South West: www.aandb.org.uk
Amnesty International: www.amnesty.org
BID: www.biduk.org
Detail of a painting from 'in the absence of justice..' exhibition by Ricky Romain.