However, the work is, at least on certain levels, concerned with a kind of pluralism; a kind of hybridization. All are trained within western art traditions after modernism and conceptualism and this is very evident in their practice. And yet they also harness these understandings of contemporary art practice to produce works in which they reference apparently "non Western" forms or traditions. Drawing on traditional pattern, decorative form or even dress traditions, they construct a discourse in which visual meaning simultaneously reference the canon of western contemporary art and something that we immediately recognize as coming from outside those western cultural traditions.
Re-aspora - Locus one
The exhibition Re-aspora - Locus One is about hybrids and pluralisms. The project reviews the practice of a cohort of unconnected contemporary artists who, through choice, displacement or history, might be seen to have an identity that is plural; western or European and additionally something else. In some cases, that additional personal identity is connected with personal histories reflecting larger patterns of migration, conflicts or colonialism.