- Songs of Light and Other Secrets Exhibition
Songs of Light and Other Secrets is an exhibition of 35 photomontages by
Pogus Caesar , in celebration of the 50th anniversary of theEmpire Windrush .13 - 29 June,
City Plaza ,Cannon Street , Birmingham. 1- 31 October,1998 Symphony Hall, Birmingham ,England Pogus Caesar is a self taught artist, born in
St Kitts ,West Indies . his earlypointillist paintings have been widely exhibited throughout English art galleries including;Wolverhampton Art Gallery 1982 ;Mappin Art Gallery Sheffield1983 ,Ikon Gallery , Birmingham;1983 ,Leicester Museum and Art Gallery 1986 .During the 1980s when organising an exhibition in
New York Caesar found himself photographing the vivid street life armed only with hisMinolta 100 instamatic camera - " not having to worry about focus and shutter speed i gave more importance to the images than trying for the perfect image".Instamatic Views of New York proved a big success touring Britain includingE.M. Flint Gallery , Walsall1985 ,Herbert Art Gallery & Museum , Coventry1986 andThe National Museum of Film and Photography , Bradford.His work is housed in private and public collections including
Leicester Museum and Art Gallery ;Mappin Art Gallery andWolverhampton Art Gallery ; in1982 he was also asked to present a painting to thePrincess of Wales during her visit toBirmingham . During this time Caesar met TV producer and presenterTrevor Phillips who gave him his first job in television, onChannel 4 's'Black on Black' .Not being one to miss an opportunity Caesar moved on to become a producer/ director himself, setting up Birmingham's first black owned production company in
1993 ,Windrush Productions , which encompasses TV, Radio and Design. " As a young boy growing up in Britain, I heard many stories about people who come to Britain onEmpire Windrush , when I formed the company there was no doubt about the name".His television programmes include producing and directing for
Carlton Television ; current affairs documentary'I'm Black in Britain' , and the award winning multi cultural entertainment series 'Xpress' and'Respect' ; forBBC TV he was senior producer and director on'The A - Force' .During his television career he has continued to photograph a wide variety of celebrated individuals including: Archbishop
Desmond Tutu , the lateJamaica n Prime MinisterMichael Manley and the legendaryStevie Wonder . Using the photographs as base material, Caesar collages, paints, and scrapes a variety of materials into the prints, creating an insatantly impressive and strongly identifiable style. "In our world of computer generated imagery, I still prefer to create using basic tools - scissors, glue, paint and the most important tool of all, imagination."The exhibition
'Songs of Light and Other Secrets' is being held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the arrival at Tilbury docks of the troopshipEmpire Windrush , transporting nearly 500 people from theCaribbean toEngland in1948 .External links
* [http://www.birmingham.gov.uk www.birmingham.gov.uk]
* [http://www.oomgallery.net www.oomgallery.net]
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