re:mote voices

Title:Alien Nation
Artists: Laylah ALi, Hamad Butt, Edgar Cleijne, Ellen Gallagher, David Huffman, Hew Locke, Henna Nadeem, Kdri Newkirk, Yinka Shoibare, Eric Wesley, Mario Ybarra Jr., Marepe
Venue: ICA 17th November 2006-14th January 2007

While in London, squirmelia, shlunk and I went to the ICA for the second last night of the Alien Nation exhibit. Corridors and lower gallery all painted a bright orange, the corridor walls full of classic pulp science fiction posters. In the lower gallery we had Shonibare's Dysfunctional Family, batik cloth scultpures of a blue and yellow alien family which was particularly striking. Newkirk offerred a beaded curtain, which looked at from the right distance/position, formed a mosaic image - suburban houses in a row, with blinding orange light blasting down from the sky. Marepe's Christmas ornaments took a fairly central position, and were depicted on Christmas cards in the shop - though I have to say I wasn't especially impressed by those. Upstairs there were a couple of film clips, and a small gallery space filled with the stunning and disturbing work of Hew Locke - Golden Horde - a space fleet constructed from children's toys, glittering structures, with distorted and mutilated dolls as pilots and warriors, incredibly detailed pieces all ready for some imaginary war.