Tate Britain: Spotlight Solo Display
- Submitting institution
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University of Central Lancashire
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 90012
- Type
- M - Exhibition
- Venue(s)
- Tate Britian, London, UK
- Open access status
- -
- Month of first exhibition
- December
- Year of first exhibition
- 2019
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- "This display investigated the way my paintings have consistently explored the complexity of female relationships. Some works were a response to the canon of Western art history wherein there was only one story in which the black women never spoke. Often depicted in close pairs, black women can be seen on boats, at the theatre, in restaurants or in imagined domestic settings; caught in a moment of tension. The theme of female dialogue is apparent – and even when there are no human forms present – pattern or colour are the forms of communication: textile design can be a secret and yet very visible language between women. The work spanned several decades from ‘Freedom and Change’ (1984) in which the process of making preceded a dramatic escape from a place of restriction and control, to a more recent work ‘The Tenderness Only We Can See’ (2018) a painting on a part of a dismantled piano in which it is indicated that the women in question can only communicate in public via a series of patterns or the depiction of birds and flowers. Here, where language fails their music speaks of the unspeakable; meaningful if you speak the tongue.
The eight works on display were, in the main, Tate acquisitions made from 1994 to 2018, but also included a loan from the Government Art Collection and two private collections.
During the 1980s and 1990s my work and that of fellow black creatives fought for visibility in British galleries; boldness and direct messages were essential. Due to consistent work by successive activists, creatives, and policy makers there are now more opportunities for black artists and more interest in the exhibitions. My paintings can now be more nuanced and formally experimental while still being centrally concerned with the agency of audiences."
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -