*Pope.L, Eating the Wall Street Journal (3rd version), 2000 performance. MoMA, New York, NY, USA. Via South London Gallery.*

Words: Eerie Rose | Imagery via South London Gallery

“Sorry, I don’t have anything.”

The words slip out of mouths without thought, sometimes even before an actual enquiry has even been made. Sitting on the train, expertly avoiding eye contact, commuters shuffle awkwardly until the person has moved on down the carriage. Expensive shoes move back so as not to have contact with bare feet, books are raised to act as a shield between their average journey home to a nice warm flat, and the reality of homelessness that stands before them. Londoners, but probably people all over, have adapted to live with this actuality existing in plain sight; the apologetic phrases are prepared and memorised, the fake sleeping to avoid interaction mastered with finesse, the ability to promptly forget the abject horror that is a total lack of human rights and dignity well practised. We’ve managed to create a society that has placed the blame for homelessness on those experiencing it, and instead of questioning that, and seeing through this as an easy way out for the government to wash their hands of responsibility for our most in need, we have simply learnt to just ignore it.

On my way to a date at the South London Gallery, this happens possibly three or four times on my journey - on the train, on the street, and even this time on the upstairs deck of the bus (a less common one in my personal experience). It would have been easy to slip into the SLG’s warm, bright lights, leaving the injustices of the world at the door along with the biting January frost, and simply pretend for a minute that everything is alright - but the late Pope.L, a provocative American performance artist, had different things in mind - today, avoidance was not on the agenda.

*Pope.L portrait. Photo: Peyton Fulford, courtesy of the artist. Via South London Gallery.*

Born in 1955 in Newark, New Jersey, Pope.L was encouraged to pursue art by his Grandmother. A real visionary of socio-political commentary, he drew attention to the absurdity of racism, consumerism and politics through satirical and invasive works that challenged contemporary culture. Moved by issues of injustice such as the homelessness and poverty I encountered on my journey to the gallery, his provocative performance art sought to confront the viewer with the absurdity of these situations by taking a commonplace interaction and turning it into a hyperbolic piece of art, encouraging the viewer to see, and critique, the reality before them. One of his most famous works, The Great White Way, 22 Miles, 9 Years, 1 Street, tackled the issue of homelessness head on. Over a period of 9 years, Pope.L crawled along Broadway, Manhattan’s longest street, only being able to handle a couple of blocks at a time. Sometimes alone and at other times accompanied by crawling volunteers, his progress along the dirty floor of the city amongst commuters and tourists shocked onlookers, in an attempt to draw attention to the fact that society has become used to seeing people begging. The performance acted as a reminder of the inhumanity of poverty and how extreme it’s juxtaposition is to everyday life for most New Yorkers - something that should not be swept under the carpet but instead seen and acted on. It’s impossible to ignore the fact that race plays a huge part in the reaction of onlookers in this piece - would they have had the same reaction to a white man crawling down the street?

Continuing his cultural critique in this current exhibition, Pope.L reworked another of his most acclaimed pieces, Eating the Wall Street Journal, in which the artist sat on a toilet covered in flour, reading and then eating bits of the Wall Street Journal lubricated with ketchup and milk. The piece was in response to an advert that claimed that just buying a copy of the magazine alone would increase your wealth. Entering the main gallery space through a red butcher’s curtain, you meet face to face with the pandemonium of his new adaptation of the work. Seeing the performance element removed, large scale wooden towers, tilted and paused in a state of collapse, jut out from the centre of the room, angular and enormous, with unusable toilets haphazardly falling and out of reach, copies of the magazine torn and dirtied with flour, placed at the sides of the gallery for viewers to sprinkle on the work at their own leisure. Chaotic and decaying, the structure feels like a bomb site, a ghost town, a decrepit memorial to the original piece, that captures the absurdity of the capitalist hell we currently exist in: an image that we can hold up and examine like a reflection in a mirror. The chaos I see before me is almost calming in this way, in fact I am grateful to see the discomfort and dysregulation of the city outside reflected within this otherwise peaceful haven - it feels right that we shouldn’t be able to shy away from the reality of such serious issues, and they should be highlighted in creative spaces, especially when those spaces are frequented by those who may have enough privilege to be personally affected by them.

Now completely drawn into Pope.L’s world, I lapped up the rest of the works on display with fervour. Dripping bottles of alcohol and hospital carafes comment on addiction, self medication, institutionalisation and mourning, while short film Small Cup depicts animals destroying a replica of the US Capitol building (interestingly made in 2008, thirteen years before it was actually stormed in 2021 by Trump supporters). It is saddening to hear of the artist’s sudden passing on December 23rd, just shortly after the opening of the show, and then hard to ignore the triumph of this work as an obituary - a homage to his efforts, the works feel like aged revolutionaries, recounting their tales of rebellion from a hospital bed, proudly sharing this archive of work yet simultaneously wondering, “was it worth it? Was it all for nothing?”
Stepping back out into the cold air, dusk just dropping into dark, I carry with me a seed of protest, a reminder planted deep within my stomach to refuse to accept the normality of the suffering we see around us every day. It is desirable for us to play along, to allow these injustices to go unchecked, however just simply rejecting the opportunity to turn a blind eye is enough of a start that can stop the powers that be from holding people back for their own benefit. I make a mental note to refuse to succumb to the willful ignorance of the commuters I encountered in the morning, and in that way alone I would say that Pope.L’s legacy will continue through his art - a push to do better, to keep questioning - whether you alone can fix the system or not, you should still try.

Pope.L: Hospital continues until February 11th 2024, across the South London Gallery’s Main Gallery and Fire Station Gallery. Admission free.

Refuse to Accept the Normality of Suffering