Strange Fruit

Strange Fruit

Strange Fruit

Multi-media exhibition by Brenda L. Croft

Performance Space, Redfern until June 25

Reviewed by Sara Cohen

The title of this exhibition is taken from a Billy Holiday song which describes the lynching of blacks in the south of the United States.

While Croft steers away from portraying the real horror of racism, she does explore other facets of how racism is experienced and viewed.

As you move around the gallery, you experience the exhibition of photographs, video, text, sound and installations. Exotic fruit, shots of King Cross, sounds of Billy Holiday and an insight into the artist through the images of her friends. The use of film and sound continually reinforce the idea of colour and how racism categorises people in terms of skin colour.

Croft explains that Strange Fruit deals with the notion of sectioning people, collecting them in quadrants and fractions, and where you're supposed to fit yourself in, how you're supposed to look, act and feel. She concludes by saying that you don't have to validate who you are or where you're from.

From GLW issue 147