Exhibition of Jim Goldberg's and Sara Ramo's work

Take my advice and enjoy Sara Ramo’s exhibition first, before climbing the stairs to the top floor to view Jim Goldberg’s work. You'll see why in a minute.

Sara Ramo is a young, emerging Spanish/Brazilian artist whose exhibition is split into two parts. This, the first, runs from October 16th to 29th November and the second from December 3rd to January 17th.

The show combines both still and moving images and references the use of geometry and the creation of alternative universes. Her work is utterly delightful; it's charming, playful and imaginative. She inhabits a child-like universe in which real objects become imbued with a magical quality. Ideas rejected, crumpled into paper balls and dropped into the waste basket refuse to be discarded and burst back out of the trash and into orbit in the artist’s studio. Spilt milk becomes the creation of the Milky Way. Masking tape on a stage defines actors’ movements during the course of a play.

Part Two promises to hold just as much fun. Work will include 'How to learn what happens in the natural order of things', 2002 – 2005, a study of Ramo’s flamingo-pink bathroom before and after she emptied the contents of the bathroom cupboards all over the floor and surfaces and 'Welcome', 2008, which shows a deluge of clothes, spilling forth from behind an ajar bedroom door, being forced still further open by the tidal wave of laundry.

Having had my heart lightened by the playfulness of Sara Ramo’s work, I was in for a serious mood-altered state by the time I reached the top floor. And rightly so. Magnum Photographer, Jim Goldberg’s work takes on the serious theme of refugees from oppressive regimes – essentially, people in search of stability. Some with hope of a better life, some with that hope beaten and raped out of them.

His study of these issues started out with an exploration of immigration in Greece, then expanded to the rest of Europe and eventually led back to the start of these heart-rending stories in the countries of origin.

Again this exhibition combines mixed media in order to convey the stories, from small black and white prints to large, medium format, colour works, emails, video and handwritten notes. Many of the smaller prints have handwritten descriptions on them. These are inscribed by the subject, giving context to their hopes and suffering, humanising, creating greater empathy and removing any trace of voyeurism.

When you visit, take enough time to read as well as look. The innumerable atrocities perpetrated against our fellow man take some time to sink in and convey their enormity. Indeed, can we ever fully understand and empathise? These crimes against humanity are just too evil to comprehend fully. The flood-gate opener for me, though, was the printed list of possible torture activities which had been filled out at a refugee centre. The mundane appearance of a form with tick boxes belied the brutality of its true contents. The fact that a tick box list exists highlights the extent of these barbaric behaviours.

One, handwritten, note underlines the importance of this body of work. It reads:

"Dear Madam,

Sorry for disturb. The English Guy is taken photos. Why is he taken Photo?

Please Tell Me Please."

For me, this has an undercurrent of fear, but it also provides hope. Hope that someone on the outside will not only understand, but do something to change it.

Words and pictures by Jane Hobson.