If you ever wondered who R.I.P Germain prays to, look no further than After GOD, Dudus Comes Next! Or, if you can’t make it to Liverpool’s FACT by the 13th of October, merely spend some time looking around because, as it turns out, the actuality R.I.P has summoned is very much a reflection of our reality. His interpretation, though, is one that revels on the fringes of the purgatory it conjures through pirouetting air vents, fire escapes, and incongruous passages that seemingly lead observers nowhere, yet everywhere simultaneously.
In this, FACT Liverpool becomes a middle plane unto itself, one where the identifiers of various underground cultures roam when they’re not wandering in and out of the V.I.P rooms, baggy spaces and weed cafés that have been laid out explicitly in After GOD, Dudus Comes Next!‘s accompanying “glossary of terms.”
Certainly, the first two terms certainly fulfil the status quo that R.I.P strives for, particularly as they are described as “the inner sanctum of various retail operations legal or illegal. Used to ensure security, to impress, and see for the more private conversations or most privileged details of high level dealing” and “lawless or quasi-lawless spaces that exist in all cities, serving social functions.”
As for the latter? Well, it’s fairly explainable, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t capable of speaking to the sermon that R.I.P Germain delivers. Whether he’s desperately preaching to us, or to the other three million people who’ve similarly found a quasi-higher power in Manchester-born rap artist Tunde’s ‘Loaf Man’ YouTube video, remains open to interrogation.
It only becomes more ambiguous in the space itself, particularly as visitors are encouraged to begin inside an imitation Hatton Garden jewellers, showcasing a nine-screen performance of silenced UK drill videos whilst a diamond-studded “Jesus piece” pendant of a white Tupac Shakur sits inside a velvet box.
A few steps later, the labyrinth transforms once again, this time into a maze of shadowy backstreets populated by varying cityscape archetypes, a nightclub standing in one place, haggard yet contrary in its flashing of fluorescent camel and fire signs. A weed café hides behind mirrored sliding doors, rendering the objects inside of it, bottle crates, cowrie shells and a marijuana odour as out of sight, out of mind and therefore beyond reproach.
But that doesn’t mean the facets and behaviours of society that society itself has condemned as “filthy” and “ugly” are considerately cleaned away. Rather, they are thrown about, precariously piled up. After all, in a “clean” space the mess is so much more difficult to ignore. Similarly, the hundreds of other innocuous objects across After GOD, Dudus Comes Next! encourage observers to recognise them not as they are seen, but as they are lived through.
“The works invite us to question how our preconceptions of places and objects contribute to the judgments we make of the people who use them” says Maitreyi Maheshwari of R.I.P Germain and Sara Sadik’s works. “In their own ways, each artist’s work brings an awareness of how social codes can become barriers and forms of cultural alienation.” Continuing with the precedent that he’s previously set at creative conservatories such as the ICA with Jesus Died For Us, We Will Die For Dudus, this rule-breaking art show demonstrates a dogged pursuit of life on the fringes.
After GOD, Dudus Comes Next!
FACT Liverpool, 88 Wood Street, Liverpool, L1 4DQ
Exhibition Opening Times: Tuesday – Sunday, 11:00 – 18:00.
Running to 13th of October 2024.
All images courtesy of the artist.
London based, future facing, arts and culture writer
