Multicultural Britain Black British art Everything in this

Multicultural Britain, Black British art

„Everything in this strange country was hard to believe” (Joan Riley: The Unbelonging)

Jackie Kay: In My Country In my country Walking by the waters Down where an honest river shakes hands with the sea, a woman passed round me in a slow, watchful circle, as if I were a superstition; or the worst dregs of her imagination, so when she finally spoke her words spliced into bars of an old wheel. A segment of air. Where do you come from? ʻHere’, I said. ʻHere, these parts. ’ (from Other Lovers, Bloodaxe, 1993)

Black British art n Blk Art Group (Keith Piper, Donald Rodney): shows in mid-198ís n 1985: The Thin Black Line exhibition, held in the corridors and stairwells of London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) n 1989: The Other Story the first historical survey of black and Asian artists in post. WW 2 Britain ( Hayward Gallery)

Anish Kapoor: Cloud Gate

Lubaina Himid: Naming the Money (2004)

Naming the Money

My name is Walukaga They call me Sam I used to chase wild boar Now the dogs do it for me And they have the meat My name is Nnamdi They call me Dan I used to have six drums Now I borrow these And it takes some skill My name is Asiza They call me Sally I loved to work the clay Now I sweep the yard But I love the mud

Hew Locke: Natives and Colonials (Capt. Cook, Victoria)

Hew Locke: Natives and Colonials (Cromwell, Churchill)

Hew Locke interview "These works are a kind of ‘mindful vandalism’ I do think carefully about which statues I’m working with. For example any army general is for me fair game. But several times I’ve walked by a statue such as the Emily Pankhurst memorial, and I think ‘what can I do with that? ’ She doesn’t have a history of any dubiousness at all - I had better leave her in peace. "The colour is vital because for me it’s about reinvigorating these sculptures and putting across an idea that they could be brightly painted. This also hints at a constant concern of mine: namely addressing the idea that sculpture, particularly in monumental sculpture, in the West is still shaped by the fact that all the colour came off the Greek statues. If all the Greek statues had maintained their colour then we’d have a completely different view of what a monumental sculpture should look like, what colour it should be, and not this whole idea of the purity of marble or the elegant quality of the bronze. I could go back as well to cathedrals in Britain, in medieval times particularly, when the statues were brightly painted. "

Maud Sulter Calliope (1992, herself) Terpsichore (Delta Streete)

Maud Sulter Hysteria (2001) Jeanne Duval (2003)

Chris Ofili: The Holy Virgin Mary

Yinka Shonibare “Historically the people who made huge, unbroken modernist paintings were middle-class white American men. I don't have that physique; I can't make that work. So I fragmented it, in a way which made it both physically manageable and emphasizes the political critique. ” n uses jazzy (West) African fabrics (batik) purchased in Brixton market that turn out to be manufactured in Korea or Indonesia - hinting at the trade n routes

Yinka Shonibare: The Swing (after Fragonard), 2001

n Yinka Shonibare: n Sir Foster Cunliffe, Playing

Yinka Shonibare: The Three Graces

Yinka Shonibare: Leisure Lady with Ocelots

Shonibare: Diary of a Victorian Dandy

William Hogarth: The Rake’s Progress

Fred Wilson: Regina Atra

Hew Locke: House of Windsor series

Chris Ofili: No Woman No Cry (1998) Tribute to Stephen Lawrence, teenage victim of a racist killing

Chris Ofili: No Woman No Cry (Tate Gallery)

Ingrid Pollard: Pastoral Interlude

Ingrid Pollard: Postcard

Keith Piper: A Ship Called Jesus; The Ghost of Christendom

Keith Piper: The Nanny of the Nation Gathers Her Flock (1987)

Keith Piper: Virtual Migrant

Sonia Boyce: Missionary Position II (1985)

n „They say keep politics out of religion and religion out of politics n Laard but look my trials nuh – But when were they ever separate – Laard give me strength

Boyce: Black Female Hairsyles (50 prints) 1995

Sonia Boyce: From Tarzan to Rambo: English Born ‘Native’ Considers her Relationship to the Constructed/Self Image and her Roots in Reconstruction (1987)

Music n Cornershop, Brimful of Asha n Monsoon, Ever So Lonely 1982 n Asian Dub Foundation, Real Great Britain n Bhangra (Valaiti Bhabian) n Nitin Sawhney, Sunset n Nitin Sawhney, Homelands n Talvin Singh, Jaan