Meschac Gaba's sweet exhibition explores port cities

Jun 16 2008 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

Sweetness by Meschac Gaba. Famous monuments made of sugar _320

MODELS of some of the world’s most instantly recognisable buildings – made of sugar – form part of a new exhibition re-opening the Greenland Street gallery next week.

Sweetness, by Benin artist Meschac Gaba, an architectural model of a fantasy port cityscape made entirely of sugar, includes iconic buildings from around the world such as the Eiffel Tower, Empire State Building, Sydney Opera House and Taj Mahal.

His work is part of Port City, which runs from June 25.

Visitors to the gallery will have an opportunity to vote for which Liverpool building should be added to the sculpture, with the selected building unveiled at a special event on August 2.

Port City addresses issues of global migration, trade and contemporary slavery, exploring the use of the port city as a symbolic site of cultural exchange. Works by internationally acclaimed artists explore the histories and contemporary realities that have shaped port cities.

Other works in the show include Sahara Chronicle, by Ursula Biemann, a video installation on migration routes across the Sahara desert and Moroccan artist Yto Barrad’s photographs, entitled Sleepers, document would-be emigrants awaiting their moment of passage from her home town of Tangiers.

Mary Evans’s work Blighty, Guinea, Dixie shows contemporary scenes from the triangle of the transatlantic slave trade through kaleidoscopes, while 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. Greenland Street has been closed to the public since April 20 following a successful display of autumn commissions that had been on show from October last year.

The gallery was opened in September, 2006, by the A Foundation, and established by Liverpool Biennial founder James Moores, to revitalise the city’s contemporary arts scene.

It consists of three former industrial buildings that have been transformed into 2,500sqm of exhibition space.

Port City is to be held in the furnace space until August 23.

Bryony Bond, A Foundation’s exhibitions curator, said: “We are delighted Port City will be visiting Greenland Street over the summer as it marks our re-emergence.

“Liverpool was once the largest trading port in the UK and, particularly during this year as Capital of Culture, it is important for this project to be exhibited.”

vickyanderson@dailypost.co.uk