Nottingham Contemporary - Alien Encounters

Sun Ra Exhibition

Sun Ra (1914-1993): The Cosmo Man 

This is the first exhibition in the UK devoted to the work of Sun Ra, the legendary jazz musician and Afro-Futurist. It aims to present him as a “total artist”. Besides his compositions, recordings and concerts, Sun Ra was a writer, philosopher and poet. He also designed his Arkestra’s record covers and publicity, and conceived and starred in a feature film, Space Is the Place (1974). Sun Ra took the name of the Egyptian sun god and claimed to have come from Saturn. The exhibition is designed by leading French scenographer Nadia Lauro.

Rana Hamadeh: The Fugitive Image

Rana Hamadeh presents The Fugitive Image, the latest chapter of her long-term project Alien Encounters, for this, her first solo exhibition in the UK. The original impetus for her Alien Encounters series was Sun Ra’s film Space Is the Place. Her sculptural installations, exhibitions, and lecture-performances explore the idea of being alien as a way to address urgent issues in the Arab and wider world today. Hamadeh revisits the story of the infamous serial killer sisters Raya and Sakina, the first women to be sentenced to death by a legal court in the modern history of Egypt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgLWXlE8KPU

18.03.2016

This exhibition being my first ever was really weird, and I didn't quite understand the concept behind most of the exhibits. I suppose I was more taken with the display of the different sections, it allowed me to open up to the possibilities of presenting my own work in different ways. I didn't particularly like the exhibition I think mainly because I didn't quite get what it was about.