Chris Berry witnesses the launch of To Gypsyland – a studio practice and archive project by Delaine Le Bas co-curated by Barby Asante questioning how much we actually know about the traveller community.
We’re all familiar with the flamboyant celebrations that Channel 4 have made so synonymous with the traveller community,but you’re better off leaving exaggerated perceptions of traveller life at home. This exhibition, on display until 16 March 2013, aims to inspire a genuine understanding of the community that is perhaps the most misunderstood of all in the UK.
As an exhibition To Gypsyland is particularly interested in investigating the jarring disparity between the romanticized, rural traveller of folklore and the reality of urban gypsies and travellers. To Gypsyland is partly an exhibition, but more of an evolving studio practice and archive. “What it looks like now, and what it looks like when it’s finished will hopefully be two entirely different things,” 198’s artist-in-residence Delaine Le Bas explains.
Being totally open to contribution is how this project was conceived back in 2011. Le Bas hopes that when visitors share their perceptions, memories, opinions and – especially – cultural stereotypes that they’ve picked up over the years, that a two-way flow of knowledge comes about as a result of dialogue. The outcome of the process being that, by the end, everyone will be better informed. In the case of this show, the misconceptions are just as important as the general perceptions held by the viewer.
198 Contemporary Art and Learning
198 Railton Road
Gallery open Mon-Fri, 11am-5pm
Arts and features writer, Chris Berry, can be found tweeting @crdberry
