Indirectly following an excellent solo exhibition from US artist Ian Davis at Josh Lilley Gallery earlier this year, Carla Busuttil delivers a similarly punchy combination of frank political message, wit and deceptively lively aesthetic.
We are the students of Sir Pierre. Sir Pierre Van Ryneveld has been used as the lead image for the show, a painting which depicts a row of grinning, identically clothed men, arms placed conga line-like on the arm of the figure in front, shoulders leaning back and rosy cheeks suggesting they might be on the tail end of an office jolly up. The loose painting style and warming use of colour add to the playful nature of the work, though the text placed across the top left tells another story: “Our motto is achieve. And success we will achieve.” The context of success and achievements, the main drivers of nearly every area of modern life — not merely in our work, but also in our relations with others, our search for housing and social status — adds an unavoidably depressing nature to this apparently jovial line-up. More directly, however, the work references the heavily decorated South African military commander Sir Hesperus Andrias van Ryneveld, bringing with it even more of a sense of brainwashing, of men in uniforms, here to ‘do jobs’, stimulated of course by potentially inspiring yet generic rhetoric.
The exhibition takes a look at private security firms in the South African artist’s home country — one of the largest private security industries in the world, larger in fact than South Africa’s own army and police force combined, with around 400,000 guards registered as active — and the inevitable widening of divides that this imposes on society between rich and poor. In her exploration of this area Busuttil set up her own private security firm, Mosquito Lightning, creating a promotional film, website and printed paraphernalia to go alongside it. She highlights the driving force of the industry, fear, which extends so much further than this single industry or country. So many recent world events feel enabled by the whipping up of fear, which can then be moulded and funnelled into whatever spending or voting habits might be required.
The tension apparent in We are the students of Sir Pierre. Sir Pierre Van Ryneveld runs throughout the show. Another painting, The Super-suburb Defence Authority, shows red-suited figures (with a touch of Santa’s Little Helpers to them) holding riot shields and dressed in helmets, some leaning in a disarmingly friendly and casual manner, grins etched on yellow-toned faces. Other works address the country’s political and social past, such as the selection of masks formed from cricket pads that sit upstairs, decorated in attractive colours and combining a naive aesthetic with chilling colonial connotations.
There is much to be found in continued digging into this show, which manages a strong focus on one particular nation and its history, while also speaking of a much more global anxiety.
‘The Super-Suburb Defence Authority’ is showing at Josh Lilley Gallery, London until 23 December.
