Donald Rodney

Donald Rodney at Celine

On a ply shelf there is a CD case with black and white sleeve that reads 'donald rodney: auto icon' and smaller black text with software and production credits. To the right of the CD case are two square images side by side. One shows a black person's hand, in their palm is what appears to be a small house like structure. The other image shows a wheelchair with brown leather seat, back and armrests and a light-skinned person with brown hair in a black jacket looking down at the chair.

An early 2000s Mac computer sits on a beige laminate office desk with a keyboard and mouse. The screen has multiple different sized windows open, some with text some with glitchy black and white images.

Celine

Artist-run gallery Celine played host to the first ever ‘solo’ presentation in Scotland of the late Donald Rodney. A leading member of the BLK Art Group formed in the early 1980s, Rodney made work characterised by pioneering engagements with new technologies and the appropriation of mass media and pop-cultural imagery in order to examine and critique racialised identity and its socio-political consequences.

Rodney was an inspiring figure during his life and his prescient work has transcended his untimely death. It maintains great relevance to this day as new generations of artists engage with the issues raised by Rodney and his contemporaries to inhabit the vital discursive field that he worked to establish in the landscape of British contemporary art. The exhibition is supplemented by a screening of a video portrait of Rodney by Trevor Mathison and Edward George and an in-conversation event with artists Keith Piper and Alberta Whittle, alongside a screening of The Genome Chronicles by John Akomfrah.

Curated by Ian Sergeant

Supported by Glasgow International