‘WHO ARE WE? Navigating Race, Class and the City’ Exhibition
It is the last week of a powerful exhibition ‘WHO ARE WE? Navigating Race, Class and the City’, being held at the Pitshanger Gallery in Walpole Park.
What a superb exhibition that Bollo Brook Youth Centre (South Acton) has created. When I worked on a project in Ealing Council in 2018/19, I worked with many of the children’s centres and interviewed some of the older children and parents from other youth centres. We explored how valuable the centres are to not only the children but the wider community. They provide an incredible place of both safety and expression. I love seeing what can happen when all the ingredients are put in place for young people to express themselves.
I have been writing in my blog about growing up as the child of immigrants in the 60s. Naturally things have changed since then, however the idea of identity, who we are, our class and where we fit in, is still central to growing up and being of colour. I went to an all girls secondary school and it was not diverse. I never really felt that I fitted in at school, and sometimes even within my own culture. It is only as an adult have I understood who I really am, and actually trying to fit in and please others is not as important anymore.
The images and exhibits in WHO WE ARE eloquently show the complexity of how people see us and more importantly how we see ourselves and the challenges of being young people.
There were two things which really stood out to me. A series of photographs showed how each young person’s perspective is so very different and sometimes anxiety provoking. The photographs were surrounded by their innermost thoughts about their identity.
Young people wrote over images of themselves how they imagine they are perceived by different people as they navigate public spaces.
As well as the photographs and art exhibits there is a very moving film. It shows a group of youths in a housing estate, and the pressures to fit in.The filming was excellent and the story itself was really gripping. It was one of the best short films I have ever seen.
Young people were asked how their ideas of identity based on gender, race, class and community were formed and conditioned. The head is filled with representations of their answers.
I loved this exhibition. If you get a chance please go and see it. Find out more on their website: www.pitzhanger.org.uk/whatson/race-class-and-the-city
I would love to hear about how perhaps age has made a difference to how you feel about your identity.
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