Donald Rodney: Visceral Canker, currently showing at Nottingham Contemporary is an exhibition comprising the entire surviving artworks of the late Donald Rodney. The work addresses topics of racial identity, prejudice, masculinity, chronic illness and Britain’s colonial past. It also includes sketchbooks, photographs and documents related to the development of his work.
Donald Rodney studied at Nottingham Trent University (then known as Nottingham Trent Polytechnic) from 1981 to 1985. Rodney was the co-founder of a collective of young black artists and curators known as BLK Art Group, who organised exhibitions and conferences, including The First National Black Art Convention in 1982, and Pan-Afrikan Connection, a series of exhibitions between 1982-1983. There is currently a companion exhibition at Bonington Gallery, Nottingham, that showcases Rodney’s activity during this time.
‘John Barnes’ and ‘Mexico Olympics’, 1991, Duratran print on aluminium lightbox with flourescent tube lights
‘Cataract’, 1991, 35mm slide installation
‘Visceral Canker’, 1990, Wood panels, perspex sheets, silicone tubing, blood bags and electrical pump
Rodney used a broad range of media and technology in his work. It is notable how he allowed the electrical and mechanical workings to be seen, and they become a part of the piece. Their inner workings are exposed, echoing the way that Rodney aimed to expose the workings of the systems that created our society, for example in the piece Visceral Canker, blood is connected between the coats of arms of John Hawkins, and Queen Elizabeth I. The work alludes to Queen Elizabeth’s role in enabling the slave trader John Hawkins, and the blood serves as a double metaphor for both the blood spilled by colonial Britain and of the connection that Rodney felt to those who were enslaved.
Blood is an enduring concept in Rodney’s work. Donald Rodney lived with sickle cell disease, a chronic illness which informed much of his experience and his work, some of which he created during his hospital stays. Much of the work includes blood or medical paraphernalia, and his illness was an apt metaphor for the sickness that Rodney saw within society. Rodney passed away when he was 36 years old from complications related to sickle cell.
Donald Rodney: Visceral Canker is showing at Nottingham Contemporary from 28/09/23 to 05/01/24. The exhibition is curated by Robert Leckie and Nicole Yip, presented in partnership with Spike Island and Whitechapel Gallery with loans supported by the Weston Loan Programme with Art Fund.
Bonington Vitrines #25: Donald Rodney in Nottingham exhibition is showing at Bonington gallery, Nottingham from 27/09/24 to 14/12/24. It is curated by Joshua Lockwood-Moran with the exhibitions team at Nottingham Contemporary.