Dwayne Coleman. M00240700

Gallery: Saatchi Gallery

Artist: Kader Attia

Title: Ghost



First Account
I first entered the room in the back entrance so I was looking at all the figures backs, I felt like I was intruding, a cult ceremony or on looking a mass of people praying. I felt like I shouldn't be there, watching all these figures. Even though I knew they were inanimate objects I couldn't help feeling that they were going turn around to look at me, which gave me an uneasy feeling.
I went to the front of the room and looked at it from there, I didn't feel the same way at all. All the feelings that I felt were just gone, now I was just looking at some hollow tin foil shells. Because I was not looking at the back of the figures anymore there was no mystery to them. It felt as if a magician had shown me a trick which had made me wonder in awe at how it was done and learning how to do the trick and not appreciate it anymore. Thats how I felt about this piece, but unlike a magic trick once its revealed being ruined, when I went to the backs of the figures again it made me feel exactly the same.


Second Account
Second visit back to the piece I was feeling quite excited to see the piece again. I really like the work, so I couldn’t wait to see it again. I remembered exactly were is was and I was straight up there, purposely missing all the other work. I ran up the stairs not thinking which entrance to go through. I went through the back entrance. I wanted to go through the front but it was too late, I’ll have to do that next time. Because I enter the room so quickly the atmosphere hit me hard. I had the sense I was intruding again, I was slightly out of breath, I felt like I was breathing too load to be into room. Feeling again like there were going to turn around and tell me to be quiet, I quietened down and took the atmosphere in. The atmosphere was so thick, I was imagining these figures to be real and I was watching them like David Attemburough watches animals. Walking up and down the room, trying to figure out my feelings, I felt like I was the ‘rich man’ watching over a room of ‘peasants’ I didn't like that feeling, I wanted to feel like I wasn't judging them or classing myself higher than any of them, even-though they are inanimate. I looked at it again briefly before leaving. I dint want to stay too long because I didn't want to loose the strong feelings i had about this piece and I didn't want my opinion to change. These feelings did not effect how much I love this piece.


Third Account
My third visit to the Saatchi gallery to look at the ‘Ghost” piece by Kader Attia. I knew what to expect and I was consciously and sub consciously thinking about how I felt the last time I was there. This time I decided to first look at it from the front of the room rather than the back. My first impression was the room felt much smaller then it felt last time. I didn't get the same feeling that I was imposing. This time I was appreciating the effort and the work that had gone to making it. I had a slight feeling that I was getting educated to what it was like in a mosque. I have never been in a mosque before but it made me imagine that it would be quite claustrophobic. It made me think weather these figures were a memory of the artists, and maybe one of these figures is her.
I had been lingering there for a while and I was getting to feel quite comfortable, because these figures were supposed to be human figures I felt a bond between me and them, I could now imagine the room to be quite welcoming. I figure most people do not like what they are not used to, and thats possibly why I felt quite out of place when I first viewed the piece.


Forth Account
Forth visit to the gallery, remembering that the last time I felt quite welcome after a while. I walked through the back entrance of the room, slightly expecting to feel like I did when I saw the figures from the back the first time, out of place, but I felt quite normal really. Maybe the effect of the piece is wearing off.
The piece has a strong essence of culture. The whole gallery had a middle eastern theme, so I expected it really. I found out that the piece is a room full of women praying made with tin foil. It is made with this domestic object because it shows the amount the women are still treated like they are supposed to be in the kitchen in the Middle-East. As I looked over them I see a huge amount of tin foil. Which makes them blend in with each other, I cant stop feeling the artist has done this on purpose because women in the middle east just blend into the background or there society. I do not know much about the middle east so the piece is really a lecture on how old fashion it is, how people are perceived there and what is normal there. This is my forth time, coming to see the piece, because of this I realize more things I would have before. For example none of them a perfectly the same, in fact I feel that each one has its own personality. Some of them are taller than others, some of them have more of an arched back. There are a few of them that’s heads are crooked, looking another way, at each other, I do not know if this is done on purpose, but it looks like some of them are engaging with each other. This makes the figure more real to me, I feel that the experience of being in a mosque is becoming more real each time I visit.