JAMES WALSH is moved by an exhibition of graphic art that relates horrors that would be much less immediate in other media
Latest editorial
The art of political liberation
DANIEL TESTER and ORLA McHALE survey the astonishing achievement of Donald Rodney, whose themes of racial injustice and institutional inequality are as relevant today as when he made them
(L) Portrait of Donald Rodney taken at home (1989); (R) Donald Rodney, In The House of My Father (1997)
RON JACOBS welcomes the translation into English of an angry cry from the place they call the periphery
GUILLERMO THOMAS recommends a useful book aimed at informing activists with local examples of solidarity in action around the world
HENRY BELL is provoked by a book that looks toward, but does not fully explore the question of who gets to imagine the shapes of cities to come
MATTHEW HAWKINS surveys the upcoming programme of contemporary dance in Glasgow, and picks some highlights
‘Chance encounters are what keep us going,’ says novelist Haruki Murakami. In Amy, a chance encounter gives fresh perspective to memories of angst, hedonism and a charismatic teenage rebel.
Donald Rodney
Spike Island, Bristol
SUMMER is not in the air at Spike Island, Bristol, where the gallery hosts a major retrospective of the trailblazing Birmingham artist, Donald Rodney. Rodney, as a short film included in the exhibition reveals, rarely saw the summer sunshine, as his lifelong condition of sickle cell anaemia usually left him hospitalised throughout the season.
Rodney’s struggle with his condition, which would lead to his tragically early death at 36 in 1998, informs much of his work, which is dark, painful and unsparing, seeming to anticipate and confront a death that hectored him all his life.
Similar stories
The Guyanese scholar’s groundbreaking work revealed how Europe deliberately underdeveloped Africa while using its resources and people to fuel Western capitalism, writes ROGER MCKENZIE
JAN WOOLF applauds art that has not only documented the anti-war and anti-capitalist movement but been an integral part of it