East End exhibitions – five of the best for July
Detail from Russian in Venice I, 2005, Monotype, (c) Stephen Chambers, Courtesy of Flowers Gallery
Shubbak Festival: A Window on Contemporary Arab Culture @ various venues
This will be the 4th biennial staging of Shubbak, which is growing in scope and confidence as a London-wide event. Arab music, art, film and writing will fill the capital, including lofty venues like the British Library and the Barbican. In our neck of the woods, particular attention must be paid to the free walking tour of Dalston (7-9 July), a stroll which takes in specially commissioned works like Sur-round (Malek Gnaoui’s exploration of boxing in the area, featuring talking punchbags) and Dead Meat Moving, a video which links human alienation with sheep filing into an abattoir. Filmed in one of Tunisia’s largest slaughterhouses, this will be shown on Ridley Road, for obvious, meaty reasons. On the following Friday night (14 July) Shoreditch’s Rich Mix will cross the streams of dance music and 60s Egyptian film with Love and Revenge, combining retro visuals with a bass and electric oud-driven live soundtrack. One of the more unique dance parties out there, no doubt! From 1 July until 16 July
Benedict Drew: The Trickle-Down Syndrome @ Whitechapel Gallery
77-82 Whitechapel High St, E1 7QX
Benedict Drew’s multimedia extravaganza, split across five rooms in the Whitechapel’s Gallery 1, has been running since the start of June, but it earns its inclusion this month with the announcement of a new tour of the spaces. On 27 July, curator Emily Butler and guides Mahera and Mohammad Abu Ghazaleh will lead attendees through Drew’s dizzying displays, which pull imagery from Surrealism, Hollywood, sci-fi and other sources. A recent piece in Time Out saw their reviewer struggle to decipher the dense, overwhelming images, sounds and digital screed, so this may be punters’ best bet at grasping Drew’s socio-political critique. Until 10 September
Oud is in the Heart: the electric version of the Eastern instrument will form part of Shubbak Festival’s Love and Revenge. Photograph: Celia Bommin
Various artists: Mono – An Exhibition of Unique Prints @ Flowers Gallery
82 Kingsland Road, E2 8DP
The term monoprint or monotype is applied to prints where only a single copy is produced. So it’s fair to say that Flowers on Kingsland Road’s latest exhibition will be unique. Mono will bring over thirty artists, many of whom work primarily in other media, together in the spirit of embracing the ephemeral and the lush, colourful statements that can be made in this medium. Tom Phillips, featured in May’s East End exhibitions, is contributing, as is Flowers’ own Carol Robertson, who explained the appeal of the monoprint: “I can be brave and experimental with a monoprint. If it doesn’t work out I tear it up and make another one. Or I have the option of adapting it, turning it into something else by over-printing or by making a ghost image or by adding drawn or painted additions. I make up the rules as I go along and I’m constantly surprised by what appears.” From 7 July until 3 September
Caroline Halliday: ISRUPT @ A Side B Side Gallery
352 Mare St, London E8 1HR
Caroline Halliday turns 70 this year, having spent 26 such birthdays as a Hackney resident. So no better time or place for a retrospective of her gender-political work. Halliday makes a point of challenging the patriarchy in her art (as well as through writing and activism), often through applying a “feminist gaze” to objects one doesn’t normally analyse in such a way – chairs, ironing boards, and similar flotsam and jetsam. Her work is a mixture of directness, ambiguity, and committed feminist interrogation, but her ‘Free Art’ street giveaways perhaps display a more inclusive side: she also proudly exhibits the work of friends and family in this exhibition, and all proceeds from this show will go to support refugee artists in Athens. From 13 July until 18 July
Saskia Wickins and Flaminia Veronesi: My China @ Brewer’s Bar
77 Shacklewell Lane, E8 2EB
‘Doo dah’, ‘foo foo’ and ‘fairy’ are three examples of socially acceptable terms for the vagina that, let’s be honest, haven’t really broken through to the global English-speaking consciousness: not in the way that “penis” and “willy” have been accepted by the genital mainstream. Saskia Wickins and Flaminia Veronesi, two set design specialists with a background in collage and sculpture respectively, argue that “vagina is seen as a word that must be avoided”, leaving a vacuum for “derogatory, sexualised or “delicate” replacements”. An overheard chat in which a little girl asked “when she would grow fluff on her ‘China’” spurred the pair into artistic action. In this one-day-only exhibition of various works, they will strive to change the conversation. 13 July, 6pm