Sweet dreams on show

Jun 26 2008 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

THE past, present and future of the world’s port cities – including Liverpool – are the subject of a new exhibition now on display.

Among the thought-provoking installations, films and photographs on show, Benin-born artist Meschac Gaba has spent two years creating the fantasy port cityscape, Sweetness, out of sugar.

While Rotterdam artist Erik van Lieshout invites visitors to watch his film about Ghanaian rap sitting in a giant box of malaria medication.

Port Cities is a sometimes weird but always wonderful exploration of the past, present and future of the ports of the world, held in the equally weird and wonderful surroundings of the furnace room in the A Foundation’s Greenland Street gallery. Yesterday, Sweetness was the talking point as the artist explained how his vast and intricate work was made – sometimes a matter of coating polystyrene or wooden models with a mixture of ordinary sugar and glue, others are visibly cut from a sugar block.

It incorporates some of the world’s most recognisable buildings and by the end of the exhibition will have added another – as the Liverpool building visitors vote as their favourite will be made and positioned in the work.

Gaba said: "It is a nice project, which came about two years ago for a biennial in Brazil when I was invited to reflect on ‘how we live together’.

"It is not about slavery, it is a positive piece. Sugar is an international symbol, it is consumed everywhere, and sweets and sweetness bring people together."

Visitors have until July 23 to vote for their favourite building which will be made to stand alongside buildings big and small including the Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower and London’s Gherkin.

"I like to work with the public, it’s a bit of fun and it gives good feeling," Gaba said.

Tom Trevor, curator of the Port Cities exhibition, which has already been displayed in Brighton and Southampton, said: "Port cities have changed so much with globalisation.

"They were a traditional part of a city that was always a gateway to the wider world, and are now container terminals.

"This is very much tying into Liverpool history and hopefully it will really strike a chord."

Other works in the show include Sahara Chronicle by Ursula Biemann, a video installation focusing on migration routes across the Sahara desert, and Moroccan artist Yto Barrada's photographs documenting would-be émigrés awaiting their moment of passage from her home town of Tangiers.

Mary Evans' work Blighty, Guinea, Dixie shows contemporary scenes from the triangle of the transatlantic slave trade – including Liverpool – through kaleidoscopes, whilst Melanie Jackson's epic installation of etchings is a reaction to the media representations of the wreck of the container ship, MSC Napoli, that foundered off the Devon coast in 2006.

Port City is at Greenland Street from today until August 24, open Wednesday to Sunday 12pm to 6pm.

vickyanderson@dailypost.co.uk