Suspect Objects Suspect Subjects

‘Go Back to Where You Hate From’ is a difficult emotion to digest, let alone engage with creatively. At the same time, some prejudice is too troubling to ignore. The Suspect Objects Suspect Subjects exhibition on virtual display at the Brunei Gallery is a compelling collection of works that question and respond to the victimisation of Muslim communities in the UK and around the world.

Themes woven through the show range from government monitoring and controlled identities to the mental health effects of stigmatisation. Artistically, these are figured in terms of the burnished steel of self-defence, the sleek lines of a mythical ‘Daily Mail’ drone, the slim-cut contours of a suicide vest in fashionable black.

Though deeply disturbing, artistic interrogation of these visual tropes makes us stop, and think. Advertising, installation, painting, sculpture, still and moving images explore the multi-faceted channels used to influence and fuel prejudice.

A nine-minute vital video tour of the exhibition is accompanied by the recording of an event with artist Faisal Hussain and Amina Yaqin entitled ‘Suspect Objects: Anti-racism in Art, Archives and Decolonial practice’.

Suspect Objects Suspect Subjects
Virtual exhibition, Brunei Gallery
Until 20 June 2021