Rose Finn-Kelcey_Here is a Gale Warning.

On a blowy day in 1972 Rose Finlay-Kelcy climbed to the top of Alexander Palace and hoisted her hand-sewn flag to alert us all to the ongoing emergency, the crisis already underway. A black and white film records her bravely up there . ‘Here is a Gale Warning’ is the superb title of the dynamic complex exhibition now on at Kettles Yard. Rose also has a bizarre pice Boxing Glove and Bubble a small photographic work whose title tells its innate story.

Curated by Amy Tobin, a historian of the 1970s and in charge of the Modern Art in the University, these installations, stunning paintings, stimulating collages all combine for a colourful set of sculptures..The exhibition is an exploration of radical propagandist art over the past fifty years. More than that it explores activism through the decades of passionate dedication from leading artists of our time. Inequality and racism weave through the sub text of the show - it spreads through architecture here in Cambridge to struggles for liberation in the United States and Europe

Colonial ambitions are explored by Pia Arke, a Greenlander protests against the marginalizing rule of Denmark. In her camera obscura she clambers - vulnerable and naked across the Arctic rocks at Inuit Thule ,of her childhood ripping up the text of Danish translations of extinct East Greenlandic songs of struggle and resistance.

A star of the exhibition is Candace Hill- Montgomery and her brilliant bright knotted pieces. Their simplicity is potent. A surprise all over the walls they attest to her political protest stance – but like the rest of the subtle exhibits, they are far from didactic. In our current contemporary climate of what appears a re-jig of the world order, especially with relation to American, these art works reveal long-held truths. Instead of disappointment at the callous materialistic geopolitical developments, they warn, as it the title, the essential callous commercialism, the racism and the cynicism and its role in world affairs. Exceptions remain but they are far from the norm.

Celebrate then the counter- culture. Justin Cagulat’s ‘Pissing in the Stars – ugly title, dazzling result. It is a huge picture over 300 metres square in oil and gouache and it merits meditative contemplation. Tomashi Jackson ‘s The talking Drum drummer singing and laying Notting Hill is another stunning piece, acrylic and stained white paper bags create a serious celebratory piece.

This is a thoughtful colourful cerebral exhibition. It even manages to incorporate Cambridge’s own superb contribution to social housing, a collaboration between Jesus College and the City Council in 1970 – we know as King Street flat, Architect Ivor Smith’s glorious sets of contemporary designs , as desirable today as fifty years ago. These are to be found in the Upper Gallery, often very worth a visit at Kettles Yard.

The painting above dominates the great gallery at Kettles Yard. It is a magnificent piece called in a rather ugly title, Pissing on the Stars’ but nevertheless this the kind of wonderful massive work to capture the attention and shock us into a re-think. It is vast and beautiful.