Declassified
The “Declassified” (8-10 April) exhibition at the Rich Mix Gallery near London’s bustling Brick Lane was a brilliant testament to Lithuanian arts. Launching on Friday 8th April with an exhibition of Lithuanian film posters the exhibition promised a stimulating and engaging experience over the three days and did not disappoint. Rich Mix should be justifiably proud of this thought-provoking exhibition. The posters themselves were a salutary reminder of the strictly censored environment of the Cold War Soviet era. Characterising the posters was the strangely muted colouring that prevailed during most of the Soviet era with browns, black and grey predominating. Long after the fall of the Berlin Wall many people could be forgiven for forgetting the censorship that existed throughout the Soviet Union until Glasnost and Perestroika provided a blast of fresh air through monolithic edifice of the iron curtain. The film posters from the “Declassified” collection brought home again how art was used for many years for political messaging in the Soviet Union. What struck me most were the leitmotifs which ran throughout the collection – long forgotten military images pointing to the now little-known Lithuanian resistance movement that continued well into the 1950’s; the evident spirituality screaming out from the images and the poignant desire to explore beyond the borders of the Soviet Union of many of the posters with plaintive notes struck; the existential “I am” poster depicting a cluster of ladders reaching up against a backdrop of a red sky spotted with brown hearts. “Bermuda Ring”, “Have Mercy on US” and “Our Small Sins” all providing food for mind and soul, the latter poster more risque than the others with its clear allusions of sexuality.
London needs more visionary exhibitions like this staged by the Rich Mix gallery which go beyond contemporary experience. Intriguingly for a moment my mind’s eye was taken by an image of days gone by and memories of a divided Europe. The view of the nearby area reminded me of the ghost of the Berlin Wall I saw in the 1990’s - with white concrete breeze-blocks interrupting the view onto the Gherkin, a church steeple adorned with a gold cross gleaming in the evening sun and the lure of the city institutions, beckoning irresistibly......
Alexandrite Ltd
