Inivators: What is the Progress Reports Exhibition actually about?

For those who are not familiar with Iniva's history the relevance of the Progress Reports exhibition could possibly be lost depending on your interest in diversity in the Visual Arts. So for a little context, it might be good to know that Iniva was founded 15 years ago to address the imbalance in the representation of culturally diverse artists, curators and writers, however Iniva later evolved into an institution that dealt with concepts of diversity in relation to contemporary society.

What diversity now means 15 years on from when Iniva started has changed drastically, with a wide array of international biennales and globalized art markets taking centre stage many asked whether or not the problem of representation had been solved? Stuart Hall the founding member of Iniva himself asked

"... Is the era and the goal of ‘cultural diversity' in the arts now over? Has the globalisation of the art world - "let a thousand biennales bloom" - 'solved' the problem?

The progress reports exhibition and programme aimed to delve further into these questions and really ask itself, what this could mean for Iniva and Visual Arts on a whole. Curating a multi-voiced exhibition and series of events exploring interpretations of ‘cultural diversity', .

Prevailing themes unravelled through discussion and debate lead many to the view that the vastness of the subject made it impossible to provide one perspective or one visualisation for an answer. It was decided that was needed was a multi-voiced programme that incorporated all of the departments of the within the Gallery, with contributions from the Stuart Hall Library, the Inivators and the use of both all project spaces to contribute to displaying of different perspectives and ideas linked into the exhibition.

In the main exhibition Manick Govinda from Artsadmin, Sally Lai from the Chinese Arts Centre and artist Zarina Bhimji selected artists. Oreet Ashery and Larissa Sansour show new graphic work; their bold mixture of art, politics, games, sci-fi and storytelling rebels against the stereotypes of the Middle East. Ashery is from Israel and Sansour from Palestine.

Artist Sanford Biggers' sculptures blend contemporary hip-hop expressions with Eastern Spiritualism, he presented a breakdance floor modelled on a Buddhist mandala.

Filmmaker and scholar Karen Alexander and filmmaker Campbell selected screenings by artists such as Kara Walker whose provocative films retell narratives around slavery and domination. In the film Kanku Ragu Hetain Patel realigns his body in relationship to nationhood. Harold Offeh shows work humorously re-interpreting Hollywood media representations of the asexual mammy figure.