Let me start by saying what an amazing exhibition I found this to be. Go and see it.

I decided to pop down to the NAE the Thursday afternoon after the opening. I had seen the flyer and brochure around the Art & Design building of Nottingham Trent University. I have to be honest, I thought I was going be the usual, a British artist/photographer turns camera on self/family. What is often the case is a family so hideous that to any outsider, the subject becomes the ‘other’, a spectacle at which to gawp. This is not to say that there has not been outstanding British self/family documentary pieces: Nick Wapplington’s ‘Living Room’, Richard Billingham’s ‘Ray’s a Laugh’ and Jo Broughton’s ‘My ex-boyfriends’ girlfriends’, but with the tidal wave of reality TV, have we not seen it all. Apparently not. There are still individuals with ideas and vision not having to rely on the sensationalistic approach – enter Patel.

Whilst writing this I am still struggling to decipher what it is that led me to consider this the most complete exhibition I have witnessed in a while. The show is made up of three installations and one set of still images – itself I suppose an installation.  Each piece centres on a different member of his family: the grandma, father, his wife and himself. The first I watched was the six minute, five screen video of his grandma going about what can only be described as her routine. Timed perfectly, it culminates in a prayer at the end, five separate voices joined in a cacophony of worship. The two screen mime of his father at work wholly expresses a respect for the man who raised him, all through simple gestures. The photographs, the only still offering, display spiderman drawings and witty text, the like seldom seen in ‘serious art’, brought a lighter feel to the collection. Finally, the six screen finale (do save it until the end) is Patel’s ‘obsession’ with the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Any more information than that will be a spoiler – after watching it twice I left the gallery grinning.

So, why did this work? Why did this shine above all the other exhibitions I have seen recently. Honest, visceral, witty, refreshing, engaging are a few superlatives I can think of. Honesty shone throughout the exhibition and maybe the presence of wit made it more believable, and thus more refreshing. It has broad appeal and flings the doors of ‘art’ wide open. By engaging the viewer with the, dare I day it, ‘multimedia’ approach, it has attraction for the moving-image generation. I do also think that it has that ‘je ne sais quoi’, that something. My MA subject matter revolves around the truth in photography. After viewing this exhibition I am more compelled to believe that the truth in art, to a degree anyway, is one’s own perception, again, that ‘je ne sais quoi’. I believed every part of this show; I am still trying to fathom why. I will be going for another viewing to see if I feel the same way. I have urged others to visit and will be pressing them for their opinion.