HEONG GALLERY RASHEED ARAEEN
My first sculpture
The Heong Gallery has done it again. They keep up their quiet revolution with another dazzling, puzzling brilliant show. On a cold grey February day I cycled towards the remarkable gallery tucked against the boundary of the historically conservative classicism of Downing college. Try it. The contrast between the expensively honed premises full of mellow good taste - and the explosive work it displays , continues to surprise .
Where do they get their ideas ? Unlike so many galleries who often echo one another’s projects , the Heong tries it on with sure-footed scholarly precision. It’s only our fault we know so little about their chosen topics, but Araeen,, has enjoyed an intensely influential career both here in Britain and in the United States. A Titan of twentieth century art, he was originally an engineer and then a politically activist,a Third World campaigner and bitter opponent of traditional Colonialism.
Where they meet 1972
This artist’s range is immense . His ‘First Sculpture’ is uncannily like Barbara Hepworth’s offering for Kettles Yard, ( recently undisclosed ) a version of a sculpture she did for the Festival of Britain. As a trained civil engineer based in Cambridge University it took only a short few weeks to metamorphose into a sturdy sculptor and then a committed internationalist and deeply dedicated socialist throughout the 1970s . Nothing could be further from the serene creations of Kettles Yard in its shell-shocked post war 1950s
1997 Salman Rushdie statement of protest on behalf of Islamic south Asians.
For six decades the Pakistani-born, London-based artist, writer, and educator Rasheed Araeen has been at the vanguard of art and activism in Britain. Rasheed Araeen: A British Story condenses Araeen’s artistic career into a representative selection of work across painting, collage, sculpture, and participatory installations. Congratulations to Rachel Coombes on her brilliant presentation of a significant artist too few of us have had time to celebrate in recent years.
The exhibition continues until 2nd February.
The Gallery is open between 12 and 5 from Wednesday to Saturday
