R.I.P. Germain @ Cabinet Gallery
I thought it was edgy and contentious. It made me feel uncomfortable. And like all the best marketing it was so simple and obvious in execution that I was shocked no one had thought of it before.
I rarely study up on an exhibition before I see it because I want to walk in with untainted expectations. All I knew was the title (Anti-Blackness Is Bad, Even The Parts That We Like), the accompanying grid of 42 images of young Black males that looked like mugshots (most apparently are), and that it contained a police vehicle. That’s everything the gallery posted on it’s preview page. They wisely gave away no more info.
The police wagon you’ll see is just elaborate decoration for what is actually a coffin. Inside is a video screen that only plays when the lid is closed. You wanna see the work? You gotta climb inside. Shoes off, but that’s not for your benefit. Once the top comes down you’ll find yourself in a tightly enclosed, pitch black space. There’s a panic button to press when you’re ready to leave, but the tomb is soon lit by a screen that’s only a few inches above your face. That’s when things get really awkward. Depending on what the 101-hour video loop starts playing you might not know if the fear and anxiety you’re feeling is from the images on the screen or the claustrophobic experience.
When I climbed inside I was given a trigger warning that content might contain violence. All I saw were clips of Black male teenagers doing the kind of stupid shit that all bored teenagers do, regardless of race. Then again, I only lasted three minutes. The gallerist said half an hour was the longest anyone had lasted but watching at length isn’t the point. The point is the volume of material that exists.
When I asked, the gallery confirmed that it’s mostly found footage from social media. However, they left out one salient fact that that I suspect won’t be apparent to the majority of white and/or middle-class attendees that typically visit upscale art galleries: the videos, and the headshots used to promote the show, are all related to UK Drill music.
I’d heard the term Drill but it wasn’t until doing research on this show that I took the time to properly look into, and listen to, this category of music that is mostly vilified by the mainstream press. Like any genre of music there’s a wide range of styles and personalities to discover. My knowledge of the issue is superficial at best but it’s already clear to me that broad stereotyping (1) has come about because quite a few of the artists have been arrested. Most, however, are just talented musicians exploring a new style.
There’s a fine line between spoon-feeding explanations and leaving things vague enough to be widely misinterpreted, but what I’ve found is that the more nuanced and specific an artist gets with the research for their work, the more likely it is that an audience will walk away with a general understanding of the artist’s intent. Drill music might have inspired the vision (2) but ultimately that’s not what the show is about. I walked away with a firm impression that it was a bold and powerful F-you statement about police racism and bias. R.I.P. Germain has commented that it is a “deliberately antagonistic and confrontational” experience to explore “how society projects and enforces itself on black people, specifically young Black men.” (3)
There’s not a lot of overtly socio-political art like this being made in London right now, but that fact often gets lost amongst the highly visible efforts to increase exposure of historically marginalised voices. Platforming is admirable, but it’s also a safe and socially acceptable approach. There aren’t enough galleries and artists unafraid to call attention to problematic racial and cultural issues that aren’t easy to address, and I’m glad the show made me uncomfortable. But the intentionally provocative nature wasn’t the sole reason I walked away feeling so unsettled. I left with far more questions than answers and a nagging suspicion that I still had some ignorance and bias to address. Good art shouldn’t just make you question the status quo. It should make you question yourself.
Plan your visit
‘Anti-Blackness Is Bad, Even The Parts That We Like’ runs until 10 May 2025.
Visit cabinet.uk.com and for more info about the venue.
Follow @ripgermain on Instagram for more info about the artist.
Footnotes:
Older readers might recall that Public Enemy’s Fight the Power, NWA’s Fuck tha Police and Ice-T’s Cop Killer were all similarly held up by the mainstream media in the early 90s as evidence that all rap music was a bad influence and should be banned.
For a deeper dive on the Drill aspect of the show read Eddy Frankel’s review in The Guardian.
Quotes are taken from an interview with NTS.LIVE. The discussion of the Cabinet Gallery show starts at the 21 minute mark and lasts about 18 minutes, but the entire 1-hour interview, which includes a few music tracks, is worth a listen.
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