TALLO
Peta and I started and finished our sessions with Tallo, the Somali young people’s group, within a week. Our sessions were part of their Summer University at Acton College and there were a lot of other courses going on at the same time. I felt by the end that I had been in a sandstorm, it was fast and hot! They were a group with a lot to say, huge energy and often short attention spans, sometimes tricky to comprehend or handle until we realised that food and drink -or lack of – had a lot to do with it -a s well as pockets of peer pressure. It’s so often the basic elements that can make or break a session. I felt this group were the hardest to engage and we never really knew what was going to work, so we had to be flexible.. For example, the identity weaving, which has never failed me before, just didn’t work with them, but the name scripts in Arabic and the object wrapping, did.
In the main, they seemed to like and respond to the idea that, effectively, their names are going to be’ tagged’ on the gallery walls and the objects they have given be seen by a large audience – concealed and revealed. This was fortunate , since these are the two main elements of the show, and I was impressed with how willing they were to offer up objects and commentary on what was being wrapped.
Most of the group are second generation, (and only one had been to Somalia), apart from two girls -sisters- who have arrived here within the last year. The difference in behaviour and self expression is huge, and although a lot of this is of course language related, I was moved to see how outspoken and upfront the second-generation girls were in their views and focus. And how poetic and subtle the more recent members of the group were. One thing that struck me during the ‘future object’ wrapping was their lack of concern with being rich, famous or remarkable (hooray, advertising doesn’t always work!) .Many seemed aware of how they had come from extraordinary backgrounds (ie the circumstances which drove their parents to leave Somalia) and so the aspiration was for stability, a ‘decent’ life etc.
The star of the show during their NPG visit was the portrait of Ayub Suleiman Diallo. It was like a mixture of relief and excitement filled the group when they saw him, at last someone who looked more like them and was a Muslim, and is getting so much attention! Debates ensued during the next session as to whether the portrait should be kept in the UK or returned to his home country – overall, they felt it would serve a better purpose here, positively representing a rare moment in history and portraiture. Despite their disappointment that he returned to slave trading, he made a real impression on them and I really hope enough money is raised to keep him there during the show, as it will make a brilliant link with the work we are producing.
All in all, it went too fast and the engagement felt like the beginning of something rather than the whole story, but then I realise I now have to engage with the material that has come out of this all, that it’s my response to these encounters which will synthesise the experiences into a coherent work of art (Inshallah…).
More reflections later, now, back to the studio!
