Intellectual Barbarians: The Kibbo Kift Kindred at Whitechapel Gallery

10 October '15 – 13 March '16

Recently DeTnk featured the book The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift: Intellectual Barbarians by Annebella Pollen published by Donlon Books. A trip to the Whitechapel Gallery to see Electronic Superhighway (2016-1966) revealed that the gallery are also showing photographs and images from the archive featuring The Gibbo Kift Kindred (Entry is Free)!

This archive display features rare woodcarvings, furniture, ceremonial dress designs and photographs of the English organisation The Kibbo Kift Kindred (1920-1932).

Formed by the artist, writer and pacifist John Hargrave after becoming disillusioned with the Boy Scout movement, the Kibbo Kift philosophy was based on a shared appreciation of nature and handicraft, as well as a commitment to world peace. Though small in number, notable members of the group included suffragettes, scientists and the novelist H.G.Wells.

A 1929 exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery was a way of spreading their ideas, and this display reveals their remarkable aesthetic drawn from ancient Egyptian, Anglo-Saxon, Celtic and Native American crafts, dress and language. Through revealing photographs and footage of the group on parades and camping trips, this display presents not only a forgotten moment in British social movements but a futuristic vision which continues to resonate today.

Whitechapel Gallery
77-82 Whitechapel High St
London
E1 7QX

http://www.whitechapelgallery.org