Artist Hew Locke Procession, Tate Britain
'What I try to do in my work is mix ideas of attraction and ideas of discomfort - colourful and attractive, but strangely, scarily surreal at the same time.' Hew Locke
We have all taken part in some sort of procession. People assemble and move together to celebrate, worship, protest, mourn, escape or to better themselves. Hew Locke's The Procession evokes all such endeavours. It is populated by imagined people who move through this imposing neo-classical space, claiming it for themselves.
Locke's installation takes as its starting point the history and character of Tate Britain's building and its original benefactor, the sugar refining magnate Henry Tate. More broadly, with The Procession, Locke invites visitors to 'reflect on the cycles of history, and the ebb and flow of cultures, people, finance and power.
The figures travel through space but also through time. They carry historical and cultural baggage: the evidence of global financial and violent colonial control embellishes their clothes and banners. Images of the colonial architecture of Locke's childhood Guyana emblazon the flags and their bearers, its flooded fields and rotten wooden walls vanishing under rising sea levels. Despite this, their attire and stance suggest power and self-assertion.
Locke occupies a space that was founded from wealth derived from an industry previously built on the labour of enslaved African people and their descendants, and which subsequent relied on the indentured labour of Asian people. Locke says he 'makes links with the historical after-effects of the sugar business, almost drawing it out of the walls of the building.' The Procession also carries Locke's own past artistic journey, with imagery linked to his previous work incorporating statues rising sea levels, Carnival and the military.
About the artist:
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1959, Locke is the eldest son of Guyanese sculptor Donald Locke (1930–2010) and British painter Leila Locke (née Chaplin) (1936–1992). He spent his formative years (1966 to 1980) in Georgetown, Guyana, before returning to the UK to study. He received a B.A. Fine Art degree in 1988 from Falmouth University, and an M.A. in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art, London, in 1994. In 1995 he married curator Indra Khanna.
Artist Hew Locke Procession, Tate Britain
'What I try to do in my work is mix ideas of attraction and ideas of discomfort - colourful and attractive, but strangely, scarily surreal at the same time.' Hew Locke
We have all taken part in some sort of procession. People assemble and move together to celebrate, worship, protest, mourn, escape or to better themselves. Hew Locke's The Procession evokes all such endeavours. It is populated by imagined people who move through this imposing neo-classical space, claiming it for themselves.
Locke's installation takes as its starting point the history and character of Tate Britain's building and its original benefactor, the sugar refining magnate Henry Tate. More broadly, with The Procession, Locke invites visitors to 'reflect on the cycles of history, and the ebb and flow of cultures, people, finance and power.
The figures travel through space but also through time. They carry historical and cultural baggage: the evidence of global financial and violent colonial control embellishes their clothes and banners. Images of the colonial architecture of Locke's childhood Guyana emblazon the flags and their bearers, its flooded fields and rotten wooden walls vanishing under rising sea levels. Despite this, their attire and stance suggest power and self-assertion.
Locke occupies a space that was founded from wealth derived from an industry previously built on the labour of enslaved African people and their descendants, and which subsequent relied on the indentured labour of Asian people. Locke says he 'makes links with the historical after-effects of the sugar business, almost drawing it out of the walls of the building.' The Procession also carries Locke's own past artistic journey, with imagery linked to his previous work incorporating statues rising sea levels, Carnival and the military.
About the artist:
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1959, Locke is the eldest son of Guyanese sculptor Donald Locke (1930–2010) and British painter Leila Locke (née Chaplin) (1936–1992). He spent his formative years (1966 to 1980) in Georgetown, Guyana, before returning to the UK to study. He received a B.A. Fine Art degree in 1988 from Falmouth University, and an M.A. in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art, London, in 1994. In 1995 he married curator Indra Khanna.