Songs of Light and Other Secrets Exhibition
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Songs of Light and Other Secrets is an exhibition of 35 photomontages by Pogus Caesar, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Empire 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 early pointillist paintings have been widely exhibited throughout English art galleries including; Wolverhampton Art Gallery 1982; Mappin Art Gallery Sheffield 1983, 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 his Minolta 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 including E.M. Flint Gallery, Walsall 1985, Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry 1986 and The 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 and Wolverhampton Art Gallery; in 1982 he was also asked to present a painting to the Princess of Wales during her visit to Birmingham. During this time Caesar met TV producer and presenter Trevor Phillips who gave him his first job in television, on Channel 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 on Empire 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'; for BBC 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 late Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley and the legendary Stevie 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 troopship Empire Windrush, transporting nearly 500 people from the Caribbean to England in 1948.
