Artist's journey inspires powerful and moving exhibition
David Drake | 18.09.2003 12:31 | Culture | Education | World
Making Sense: A Rwanda Story is a powerful and moving exhibition that opened this week at Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery and runs until 23 November 2003. Inspired by the artist Helen Wilson's visit to Rwanda in 2002, the exhibiton features large scale paintings, film, poems and music showing the beauty of Rwanda and the resilience of its people in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide that claimed one million lives in 100 days.
Artist’s Journey to Rwanda inspires powerful and moving exhibition
The artist Helen Wilson’s journey to Rwanda has inspired an important exhibition that opens this week and runs till 23 November 2003. The powerful and moving portrayal of the aftermath of genocide in Rwanda is now showing at the Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery.
In his introduction to the exhibition catalogue, the distinguished writer and correspondent Fergal Keane says: “To gaze into such a darkness as Helen Wilson has done takes a courage which most artists will never be called on to display. Her aesthetic sensibility is acute and she is a truly gifted artist. But the greatest gift she brings to these paintings is humanity. I have looked at so many images from Rwanda that I truly believed I would see nothing that could surprise me. Nor did I expect to see images which would offer some hope amid the terrible despair wrought by Genocide”.
Making Sense: A Rwandan Story is a collaborative project and exhibition, inspired by a visit the artist Helen Wilson made to Rwanda in 2002. At the heart of the exhibition are eleven large-scale paintings, which together tell a story of personal dignity, courage and survival.
Helen Wilson has been painting images of Rwanda since the 1994 genocide, which claimed the lives of over a million people in 100 days. Having now met survivors and visited the genocide sites, she has created new works that show both the beauty of Rwanda and the resilience of its people in the face of a massive human tragedy.
Helen Wilson said: “Trying to make sense of what happened in Rwanda has been at the heart of my work for nearly a decade. I want to express through this exhibition as much as possible about Rwanda as it is today - the beauty and the tragedy, and the dignity and grace of its people in the aftermath of the genocide. I am not a politician or a journalist, but I can paint. That’s my communication tool. I want to represent what I saw clearly and accurately, to offer understanding and hope for the future”.
Helen Wilson has collaborated with the poet Shiloh Harmitt, and musician/composer Richard Chadwick, who have responded to her work by creating new poems and a soundtrack to accompany the paintings.
A documentary film about Helen’s work, produced by award-winning cameraman Mike Fox and BBC director Kate Broome, will also be shown as part of the exhibition. The film features music by the Cinematic Orchestra.
The exhibition runs from 6 September – 23 November 2003 at the City Museum & Art Gallery, Queens Road, Bristol. Open daily 10am – 5pm. Tel: (0117) 922 3571. Entry is FREE.
The artist Helen Wilson’s journey to Rwanda has inspired an important exhibition that opens this week and runs till 23 November 2003. The powerful and moving portrayal of the aftermath of genocide in Rwanda is now showing at the Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery.
In his introduction to the exhibition catalogue, the distinguished writer and correspondent Fergal Keane says: “To gaze into such a darkness as Helen Wilson has done takes a courage which most artists will never be called on to display. Her aesthetic sensibility is acute and she is a truly gifted artist. But the greatest gift she brings to these paintings is humanity. I have looked at so many images from Rwanda that I truly believed I would see nothing that could surprise me. Nor did I expect to see images which would offer some hope amid the terrible despair wrought by Genocide”.
Making Sense: A Rwandan Story is a collaborative project and exhibition, inspired by a visit the artist Helen Wilson made to Rwanda in 2002. At the heart of the exhibition are eleven large-scale paintings, which together tell a story of personal dignity, courage and survival.
Helen Wilson has been painting images of Rwanda since the 1994 genocide, which claimed the lives of over a million people in 100 days. Having now met survivors and visited the genocide sites, she has created new works that show both the beauty of Rwanda and the resilience of its people in the face of a massive human tragedy.
Helen Wilson said: “Trying to make sense of what happened in Rwanda has been at the heart of my work for nearly a decade. I want to express through this exhibition as much as possible about Rwanda as it is today - the beauty and the tragedy, and the dignity and grace of its people in the aftermath of the genocide. I am not a politician or a journalist, but I can paint. That’s my communication tool. I want to represent what I saw clearly and accurately, to offer understanding and hope for the future”.
Helen Wilson has collaborated with the poet Shiloh Harmitt, and musician/composer Richard Chadwick, who have responded to her work by creating new poems and a soundtrack to accompany the paintings.
A documentary film about Helen’s work, produced by award-winning cameraman Mike Fox and BBC director Kate Broome, will also be shown as part of the exhibition. The film features music by the Cinematic Orchestra.
The exhibition runs from 6 September – 23 November 2003 at the City Museum & Art Gallery, Queens Road, Bristol. Open daily 10am – 5pm. Tel: (0117) 922 3571. Entry is FREE.
David Drake
e-mail:
david.drake@watershed.co.uk
