Nature: Through her eyes - Women and climate change

A very interesting festival linking fight again climate change and feminism!

Here is the press release:

 Nature : Through her eyes 

3 days of discussions, screenings, celebration 

Perpignan, France, 19-20-21 October 2019

The lion’s story will never be told if the hunter is the only one to tell it. 

(African proverb) 

Shannon Benson - Image by Russell MacLaughlin

Traditionally the white male adventurer’s brief, women are underrepresented in storytelling about nature and wildlife. Films, texts and photographs that explore the natural world have often prioritized male contributions. 

How do female creators position themselves in relation to the wilderness? What is their point of view ? What does their perspective offer ? Does their interest in interpersonal relationships, kinship ties and individuality help us reconnect to the species with which we share the earth ? Do they allow us to see things differently ? 

As we enter the period of the sixth mass species extinction and a global climate crisis, the human connection with the natural world has become one of the greatest challenges of our century. With increasing evidence that human health is inextricably linked to our interaction with nature, these challenges offer a crucial opportunity for women to bring their own perspective to the portrayal of the wild world. 

It is important now more than ever to give space to the female point of view. 

The VII Academy is excited to host a special event celebrating and highlighting women’s roles in the arts, including writers, photographers, filmmakers, as well as camera and sound operators. We will be exploring what a feminine perspective means to women, what they bring in their story telling and why it is important for society as a whole. We will be giving space for women’s ideas and work that are innovative and important for all audiences to see. 

The festival will be held in the dynamic city of Perpignan, France, from October 19-21st, 2019. Presenters hail from the media, literature, academia and research, and legal and commercial worlds. 

Programming will include professional workshops, seminars, film screenings, and mentoring. 

The festival offers a platform for women to share experiences between generations and across cultures, creating a mentorship network for young women entering the profession that will last long beyond the festival dates. 

The VII Academy is a not for profit foundation based in France, Bosnia and Thailand. Its mission is to provide tuition-free education in the fields of media practice to women and men from the majority world and to support vocational training and knowledge transfer initiatives to communities that are under-served or under-represented in the media. As a part of our mission, this festival will be a free event open to the public and will support the participation of panelists from across the world. 

Dates: 19, 20, 21 October 2019 

Venue 

HÔTEL PAMS - PERPIGNAN 

Organization 

The VII Academy 

In collaboration with 

Association VISA pour l’image, Perpignan, International Center of photojournalism, Cinéma Castillet, University of Perpignan 

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PROGRAM

Friday, October 18th

AM : Documentary film screening and Q&A for primary schools (Cinema Castillet) 

PM : Documentary film screening and Q&A (Cinema Castillet) 

Saturday, October 19th

09:00 Arrival of participants – Welcome coffee 

10:00 Opening remarks (Salon Verrière) 

10:30 Discussion – "A feminine perspective in pictures" (Salon Rose) 

What is particular about the female perspective in films and photographs about nature and the wild world? Are there subjects that interest women, which are not addressed by men? Do women look at the wild world differently? This panel will explore the unique, innovative, and often collaborative approach women creators employ in the visual arts. The panel invites a selection of international women from a wide array of experiences and roles to discuss what the female narrative in pictures brings. 

14:30 Discussion – “Women in the field, barriers and solutions” (Salon Jaune) 

What is it like to be a woman on an all-male shoot? What physical and technical barriers are challenging and what technical advice do professionals have for women who are starting out? This panel includes sound engineers, cinematographers and photographers that can address a wide range of technical questions, and discuss how they’ve developed unique styles in their work. 

14:30 In parallel - Cultural visit of the historic city of Perpignan 

17:00 Documentary film screening and Q&A with the director (Cinema Castillet) 

Sunday, October 20th

9:00 Welcome coffee and one-on-one sessions with speakers 

Informal conversations over coffee with panelists, speakers and attendees offer an opportunity for attendees to ask targeted questions, receive specific advice, share projects, and discuss possible collaborations. 

10:00 Discussion – "Nature Writing, from a female point of view" (Salon Rose) 

How do female writers portray nature in works of fiction and essays? How does culture color that perspective? Nature writing has long been the domain of primarily white male writers. Today, women are staking their claim on the genre in original ways. How does their perspective enrich what the Scottish author Kathleen Jamie has called the archetype of “A lone, enraptured male.” 

10:00 In parallel - Documentary film screening + Q&A 

14:00 Discussion – "Inventory and exchange, the state of affairs" (Salon Jaune) 

How can we overcome obstacles to make women’s work about nature better funded and more visible? What are the budgets allocated to women in the television industry, the publishing world, and the world of photography? What are the possible problems and prejudices encountered and how have these industries changed over time? Established industry professionals will be discussing how they have navigated professional settings and what strategies they suggest for women entering. They will discuss pioneering women’s work and offer direct pitching and funding advice. 

16:00 Keynote speaker (Salon Rose) 

17:30 Authors readings followed by documentary shorts film screening (Cinema Castillet) 

Monday, October 21st: 

9:00 Portfolio reviews 

20 minute sessions with some of our panelists and other attending professionals will be scheduled for attendees interested in showing and receiving feedback on a selection of their work. 

10:00 Discussion – "What could possibly go wrong ?" (Salon Rose) 

Women photographers, filmmakers, and authors often have an education that lacks any legal training. They begin their artistic professions as freelancers or on short term contracts. This discussion will be led by two lawyers, one French and the other English-speaking, and offers a basic understanding of rights and contracts. It will address challenges particular to women -wage parity, sexism, as well as how to fairly negotiate a contract. 

11:00 Documentary film screening (Cinema Castillet) 

12:30 Closing remarks (Salon Verrière) 

More on this soon:

https://www.climateweeknyc.org/climate-week-nyc-2019

Climate Week NYC 2019

Climate Week NYC will take place this year from September 23 to 29. Run in coordination with the UN and the City of New York, Climate Week continues to grow as the time and place for the world to showcase amazing climate action and discuss how to do more. The anchor events of Climate Week are growing, and the number of events in 2019 is set to far exceed the 150 events of 2018 - the largest ever. Climate Week NYC is run by The Climate Group, the international non-profit focused on accelerating climate action.

Supporting the Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit

During Climate Week NYC this year, the UN Secretary-General will be holding a Climate Action Summit on the Monday. Climate Week will support the Summit by providing a space for leading organizations around the world to extend action far and wide outside of the UN building and throughout the whole week.

In addition, the Climate Week Hub, due to being massively oversubscribed in 2018, will extend to two days - allowing a fantastic physical space for businesses, states, cities and the whole diverse frontier of global climate action to come together.

Climate Week NYC, September 23 – 29, 2019, New York City

Businesses, governments, academic institutions, arts organizations, individuals and non- profit organisations are invited to participate in the week-long events program including panel discussions concerts, exhibitions, seminars and more. 

Climate Week NYC 2019 Events will be categorized in the following programs (click to find out more or to register an event):

•    Youth & Climate Activism 
•    Energy Transition 
•    Industry Transition
•    Clean Transport, Buildings and Infrastructure
•    Food, Land and Nature Based Solutions
•    Climate Finance, Investment and Carbon Pricing
•    National Government Policy and Commitment
•    State, City and Local Action
•    Health, Equality and Justice
•    Sustainable Travel and Leisure
•    Resilience and Adaption to Climate Change

Opening Ceremony, Monday, September 23

The Climate Group will host the Climate Week Opening Ceremony on the morning of Monday September 23, ahead of the UN Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit later that day. Annually, the event attracts CEOs, government ministers, governors, mayors and investors from around the world who are shaping markets and setting policy to make climate action a reality.

In 2018 speakers included world leaders such as the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern and the President of Peru, Martín Vizcarra, as well as Governor Brown of California, the CEO of Ricoh, Jake Yamashita, the CEO of ENEL, Francesco Starace and the President of Microsoft, Brad Smith, among others. All spoke of the dramatic and exciting changes being made in their industries.

For general enquiries please contact info@theclimategroup.org.

For media enquiries please contact media@theclimategroup.org.

For business development opportunities please contact sponsorship@theclimategroup.org.

Sustainable Travel & Leisure Program, Friday, September 27

The keynote event for the Sustainable Travel & Leisure Program is Building Sustainable Tourism Together, hosted by NYC & Company at the Javits Center. This event will feature keynote speakers alongside three panels exploring the latest sustainability considerations for our industry, particularly the hospitality, cultural and meetings/events sectors. This event will run simultaneously with four other sustainability-focused conferences at The Nest, which will combine at the general session and lunch for stimulating networking and conversation.

The Climate Group

The Climate Group’s mission is to accelerate climate action to achieve a world of no more than 1.5°C of global warming and greater prosperity for all. We do this by bringing together powerful networks of business and governments that shift global markets and policies. We focus on the greatest global opportunities for change, take innovation and solutions to scale, and build ambition and pace. We are an international non-profit organization, founded in 2004, with offices in London, New Delhi and New York. We are proud to be part of the We Mean Business coalition.  

Visit TheClimateGroup.org

'OFFICIAL SECRETS' - Official Trailer

Film coming soon, bringing a new light on the building up of the war on Iraq in Britain in 2003:

The true story of a British whistleblower who leaked information to the press about an illegal NSA spy operation designed to push the UN Security Council into sanctioning the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

'OFFICIAL SECRETS' - Official Trailer

In 2003, as politicians in Britain and the US angle to invade Iraq, GCHQ translator Katharine Gun leaks a classified e-mail that urges spying on members of the UN Security Council to force through the resolution to go to war. 

Charged with breaking the Official Secrets Act, and facing imprisonment, Katharine and her lawyers set out to defend her actions. With her life, liberty and marriage threatened, she must stand up for what she believes in…  
Directed by: Gavin Hood Produced by: Ged Doherty, Elizabeth Fowler, Melissa Shiyu Zuo Starring: Keira Knightley, Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, Ralph Fiennes

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Release: 18 October 2019

'Makes Me Wonder'

Tricky's new song, featuring Marta Zlakowska:

'Makes Me Wonder'

Featured on 'Test of Time' ℗ 2019 False Idols in association with K7 Music

#Meanwhile: 'What's in a (Trump) Straw?'

Watch as Naomi Klein explains why the overpriced scraps of pre-landfill known as Trump Straws can actually tell us a whole lot about why our planet’s on fire:

'What's in a (Trump) Straw?'

By The Intercept. 

Use Natural Climate Solutions To Protect Nature!!!

Must see!!!


Use Natural Climate Solutions To Protect Nature

| Extinction Rebellion - with Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot

https://youtu.be/EXGfBHxvE_c via @YouTube

Right now, we are ignoring #NaturalClimateSolutions. We spend 1000 times more on global fossil fuel subsidies than on natural based solutions. This is your money, it is your taxes, and your savings.” - @GretaThunberg #NatureNow @GeorgeMonbiot http://conservation.org/naturenow Recent research has indicated that living ecosystems like forests, mangroves, swamps and seabeds can pull enormous quantities of carbon from the air and store them safely. Estimates have found that protecting these natural systems could provide more than a third of the emissions reductions needed to keep to global heating below 1.5 degrees Celsius while also enhancing the resilience of people and nature across the world to climate change. Despite this promise, Natural Climate Solutions receive only around 2% of the funding spent on climate change mitigation globally, and few have heard about it. This short, independent film was made to make nature a part of the climate conservation. Mr. Monbiot, a political journalist, author and activist who founded the Natural Climate Solutions campaign earlier this year, stated, “The beautiful thing about Natural Climate Solutions is that they simultaneously repair the climate and our damaged ecosystems. They offer real hope where hope was scarce before. But they are not a substitute for leaving fossil fuels in the ground. We need to do both to avert climate breakdown.” Produced by Gripping Films Ltd., an independent London-based science and nature film company that specializes in telling positive stories to change the world, the film is High Impact/Low Carbon footprint. The film team minimized their carbon footprint by using public transportation to travel from London to Sweden to film Greta and electric vehicles to film George. The film was mainly composed from recycled and donated Creative-Commons licensed footage. The remaining carbon footprint was offset through NCS investments. The film’s production costs were covered with sponsorship from Conservation International, The Food and Land Use Coalition, and a donation from Gower Street. Musician and performance artist Rone donated use of his track, Motion, to the film. Tom Mustill, head of Gripping Films, an independent production company specialising in stories of where people and nature meet, said: “One of the things that made me want to immediately make this film, gave me hope that we can make something quickly and that people would find it interesting and listen, was the success of Extinction Rebellion. Being part of that and seeing how many people of all generations can be engaged with it, gave me the courage to step out of the normal way of making films which is to get funding first and then get someone to broadcast it. We just thought, let’s go for it, and hopefully people will want to see it.” Nature Now #naturenow Narrators: @gretathunberg & @georgemonbiot Director @tommustill Producer @trianglemonday

Tricky will "open up on loss, violence and personal struggles"

A bit more on this coming book!

In his coming autobiography, Tricky will "open up on loss, violence, personal struggles and financial ruin"

His autobiography will see him coming back to Bristol for the book launch...

"The effects of his mother’s suicide, his battles growing up in 1980s Knowle West and his journey to take the musical world by storm" - Bristol musical icon Tricky is set to reveal all in an autobiography, as announced in July.

(Image: Bonnier Books)

The book is titled  ‘Hell Is Round The Corner’ and will be published on October 31, with a launch in Bristol two days earlier, at Foyle’s bookshop in Cabot Circus.

Now based in Berlin, the musician was born in Knowle West, South Bristol, and became one of the pioneers of the musical movement that came out of Bristol in the early 1990s, included Massive Attack and Portishead.

Tricky said in a press release that he wanted to tell his own story:  

"I was never interested in being the richest guy on the planet. My attitude was, I’m gonna turn music upside down. I’m gonna make a sound that nobody’s heard before."

A unique story in British music

Publishers Bonnier Books said the book will reveal all about Tricky’s amazing story - from youth in Knowle West to being feted by David Bowie.

“Tricky takes the reader on a journey from the margins of Bristol’s ghettos to the high-life of 1990s music industry excess,” said Bonnier Books’ Katie Greenaway.

“In his distinctive voice, he talks about loss, violence, personal struggles and financial ruin – and how he emerged from a crazy, drug-infested LA to reinvent himself in Paris and Berlin." 

The book has been written in collaboration with music journalist Andrew Perry and features contributions from members of Tricky’s family, music industry insiders, former gangsters and also noted music icons such as Terry Hall and Shaun Ryder.

Tricky’s first solo album, ‘Maxinquaye’ went gold, selling a million copies worldwide, was the NME’s album of the year in 1995 and nominated for that year’s Mercury prize. Since then he has recorded twelve other albums.

More details here:

“Before his music career, however, he grew up in the ‘white ghetto’ of Bristol’s Knowle West – alongside family members that included convicted criminals and bare-knuckle boxers,” added Katie.

“Out of an environment of urban struggle and economic disadvantage – he forged a unique creativity, finding acclaim from the likes of David Bowie.

“Tricky speaks candidly about how his mother’s suicide when he was just four years old has had a lifelong effect on him, both creatively and psychologically, and how the underground cultures of the 1980s and ’90s, like squatting, festivals, Jamaican sound systems and the emerging UK hip-hop scene gave him the space and inspiration to express himself artistically.

“Free to develop his taste naturally and experimentally, in part by working with like-minded peers such as Bristol’s Wild Bunch – from which later came Massive Attack – Tricky pioneered his extraordinary sound. When Island Records’ legendary figurehead Chris Blackwell signed him, his adventure as a household name began,” Katie added.

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I very much look forward to reading it!

More on Tricky for now in my book: 

Massive Attack: Out Of The Comfort Zone

In-depth study of the influences that led to the formation of the Wild Bunch and then Massive Attack, this book looks into Bristol's past to explore how the city helped shape one of the most successful and innovative musical movements of the last 30 years. 

Street artist turned MC 3D and DJs Daddy G and Mushroom founded Massive Attack in 1998, after years of underground exploration in the multicultural, edgy venues of the Bristol of the 1980s.

Melissa Chemam gives a unique insight into Massive Attack, their influences, collaborations, politics and the way in which they opened the door for other Bristol musicians and artists. These include Tricky, Smith and Mighty, Portishead, Alpha and street artist Banksy. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Massive-Attack-Out-Comfort-Zone/dp/1910089729

Reportage: About the Bristol Pound

Here is one I wrote 6 months ago... Finally online:
In the UK city of Bristol, members of the Green Party have introduced a local currency: the Bristol Pound 

Can local currencies help the environment? DW Living Planet, by Melissa Chemam 

https://www.dw.com/en/can-local-currencies-help-the-environment/a-49053524

Can local currencies help the environment?

Many places around the world are looking for ways to become more environmentally-friendly. In the UK city of Bristol, members of the Green Party have introduced a local currency. Does it work?

Long known for its hippy vibe, urban farms and politically aware artists like Banksy, the UK city of Bristol has more recently become famed for the introduction of its own tender. 

At one of the city's many organic stores, the people who use the Bristol Pound told DW they use it a lot.

"If you think about economics, you keep money in an area, it ends up circulating in one area," a shopper who works in a café at a local city farm told DW.  "So to me it makes complete sense and it supports independent businesses."

One of those businesses is Werburgh City Farm, which is located in a bohemian district where inhabitants have been growing organic vegetables in small allotments since the 1970s.

Besides being used in the on-site café, Bristol's brand of cash is regularly used by other local ventures that buy the farm's produce. Sarah Flint, a training manager at the farm, is enthusiastic.

"It's one of those things that's growing and growing and it certainly has made people think 'I've got this money, I'm going to spend locally,'" she said. "And it's so important to get that locality idea."

In many local stores in Bristol, people can pay with a local currency called Bristol Pound

Riotous inspiration

Local currencies, which are often used as tools in "transition towns" — grassroots community projects aimed at increasing self-sufficiency and reducing climate destruction — avoid importing what doesn't need to come from far away. And that has benefits for the environment.

Ciaran Mundy, one of the creators of the Bristol Pound, now used by a network of 2,000 individuals and businesses, says to create a green society, you have to change structures and people's behavior.

"To localize supply of food and other products, and avoid energy to transport them from all over the world, you need a systemic intervention, across different sectors of the economy," she told DW. "That's one of the reasons the Bristol Pound was born."

It was introduced into circulation after the 2011 riots in which residents of Stokes Croft, a neighborhood known for its strong counter-cultural scene, protested the opening of a store run by Tesco  — the UK's biggest supermarket chain.

Ongoing progress

A 20-minute walk from Werburgh City Farm is Gloucester Road, one of the UK's longest streets of independent shops. Although most accept the local currency, many residents say they don't actually use it.

"I thought about it," Carlotta, who is relatively new to the city, told DW. "But sometimes you're busy with your life, so you don't do it."

Her friend, Fatima, thinks it hasn't caught on more widely because "you have to think about where you're going to find it."

Others are more aware of the goal of the currency. "I buy locally anyway," Laura told DW. "It keeps the money generated in the city inside the city, rather than to see it go to multinational firms."

Besides being legal tender in hundreds of shops and businesses, employees of Bristol City Council can opt to be paid in the local currency. Most notably, the former Mayor George Ferguson was paid his entire salary in Bristol pounds, from 2012 to 2016.

Werburgh City Farm is located in a bohemian district in Bristol where inhabitants have been growing organic vegetables in small allotments since the 1970s. 

An inspiration for new forms of city to country relations

The creators of the Bristol Pound claim it helped the city to win the titles of European Green Capital in 2015 and researcher Coco Kanters, who has been studying community currencies since 2013, says it has become the "largest and most institutionalized [local currency] in Europe".

Since its inception in 2012, the Bristol Pound has generated 5.79 million euros ($6.49 million) of spending.

A number of other places, such as Lewes and Totnes in the UK, Exeter and Baltimore in the US, and places in Greece have their own local currency, and others are in the making.

In his 1984 essay The Role of Local Currency In Regional Economic Development, Robert Swann, founder of the US Schumacher Center for a New Economics, said once regions begin "issuing their own currencies, we will have taken great strides toward regional self-reliance, greater security, full employment and an economy of permanence."

But Jo Michell, Associate Professor of Economics at Bristol's University of West England says that in order for local currencies to have a meaningful impact, they have to alter people's behavior in some way.

"It isn't clear to me that this is the case," he told DW. "My suspicion is that the people who shop locally using Bristol pounds would shop locally without the Bristol pound."

Nonetheless, the number of businesses willing to accept the local currency and thereby promote both sustainable economic and environmental practices, continues to grow.

And that is no mean feat in a country with a reputation for clinging so dearly to its national tender.

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The Work of Black Artists in 1980s Britain - Bristol event on 3 October

The Place is Here: The Work of Black Artists in 1980s Britain

Launch Event 
Thursday 3 October
7-9pm 
Wills Memorial Building
Bristol University
FREE and open to all 

Join us for the launch of the new publication, The Place Is Here: The Work of Black Artists in 1980s Britain, continuing the legacy of the international exhibition The Place is Here (2016-17).

The Place is Here exhibition traced the urgent and wide-ranging conversations taking place between black artists, writers and thinkers in Britain during the 1980s. The exhibitions brought together over 100 works by 40 artists and collectives, spanning painting, sculpture, installation, photography, video and expanded archival displays, examining this critical decade for British culture. The exhibition was shown at Van Abbemuseum (2016); Nottingham Contemporary; the South London Gallery; and Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (all 2017).

Join the editors and David Bailey and Jessica Taylor of the International Curators Forum for an evening unravelling the intellectual, aesthetic and political concerns addressed in the book. Featuring creative responses by artist, writer and researcher susan pui san lok and Spike Island artist Valda Jackson.

The Place Is Here: The Work of Black Artists in 1980s Britain is edited by Nick Aikens and Elizabeth Robles and published by Sternberg Press and Van Abbemuseum.

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International Curators Forum (ICF) was founded in 2007 to promote, encourage and develop curatorial and artistic practice and discourse about contemporary visual arts across all forms, including painting, sculpture, photography, film and live performance art. ICF does this through commissioning, programming and presenting exhibitions, projects and events that promote and support the professional development and expertise of curators and artists at all stages of their professional career. ICF’s professional development programmes also involve international networking trips, masterclasses, residencies and mentoring. 

The 2016-18 programmes Diaspora Pavilion and Beyond the Frame were nationally and internationally notable for their innovative proposals and approaches to addressing professional development and cultural diversity. The organisation also curates exhibitions and events that address diasporic culture in a global context, examples of which include: Tactical Interventions (Venice, Kassel, Munster, Istanbul in 2007), The Beauty of Distance: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age (Sydney Biennial in 2010), Caribbean Pavilion (Liverpool Biennial in 2010), Black Diaspora Visual Art (2011-2), Curating the International Diaspora (London, Gwangju, Sharjah, Barbados and Martinique 2016-7) and Diaspora Pavilion (Venice, Wolverhampton 2017-8). 

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Reminder: my piece on Lubaina Himid's work here: https://skindeepmag.com/articles/lubaina-himid-the-colours-of-our-past/

07.12.17

Lubaina Himid: The Colours of Our Past

Written by Melissa Chemam

As one of the forefront representative of Black artists in the U.K., Lubaina Himid was nominated for the Turner Prize 2017. And on Tuesday night she won! I was lucky enough to interview Lubaina and to visit the contemporary Spike Island Gallery in South Bristol last year, which hosted an exhibition dedicated to her unique and ground-shaking work, along with two other galleries in the United Kingdom: Modern Art Oxford and at Nottingham Contemporary. It was an unmissable occasion to plunge into her eye-opening and striking art.

Over the past two years as a freelance journalist I have been travelling between London, Paris, Bangui (Central African Republic), Calais, Erbil (Iraqi Kurdistan), Sicily and Roya Valley in the South of France. I was mostly covering the refugee crisis for different European Media outlets. At one point I ended up in Bristol, and went from covering the frontlines of the crisis, to exploring the culture of England’s West Country, a culture made up of unexpected encounters between a punk ethos and a deeply creative Caribbean population. I focused a lot on the role of the African and West Indian diasporas in the U.K, connecting these different histories and stories of migrations.

Since the beginning of 2015, I saw Bristol’s art venues host exhibitions such as the M Shed’s commemoration of the role of West Indian soldiers in the First World War, Jamaican Pulse at the Royal West of England Academy and, in January 2016, John Akomfrah’s Vertigo Sea at the Arnolfini Gallery. The latter was a mesmerizing, tragic audio-visual experience by the filmmaker and founder of the Black Audio Film Collective, comprising seven Black British and diaspora multimedia artists and filmmakers (John Akomfrah, Lina Gopaul, Avril Johnson, Reece Auguiste, Trevor Mathison, Edward George and Claire Joseph).

So in January, when I came across Lubaina Himid’s opening for the “Navigation Charts” exhibition at the Spike Island gallery, I realised how the two parts of my writing and work were linked. Himid’s profound insight into the role of the diaspora in her art was striking. In many ways, she has been a game changer in expressing and exploring these issues, from as early as the years 1980s.

Path of Changes

As one of the forefront representative of Black artists in the U.K., it is no surprise that Lubaina Himid was this year 2017 at the centre of these three concomitant exhibitions, displaying the result of decades of an eye-opening and striking work. Mixing different art forms of canvas work, installations, paintings, and sound effects, Himids’ art pieces come alive.

At the Spike Island Gallery, the Navigating Charts exhibition was a clear example of her mastery. Painted on panels standing in the Spike Island Gallery’s main room, the figures are accompanied by a sound system broadcasting these characters’ voices. Their names are written on their backside, referring to both their original African name and a newly given English name. These portraits leave you with a powerful sense of both familiarity and estrangement, creating a conversation around the meaning of fluid identities. Walking through the installation seems to open a possibility for meetings across time…

Born in Zanzibar in 1954, Lubaina Himid moved to Britain as a child with her parents in the 1960s and grew up in London. She started her pathway through the art world by studying theatre design, before entering the Royal Art College and writing a thesis in cultural history on young Black artists in Britain, released in 1984. A accomplishment that quickly took her to also support other artists’ debuts, including Sutapa Biswas, Sonia Boyce, Claudette Johnson, Veronica Ryan and Ingrid Pollard.

“I was, very early on, a political teenager,” Lubaina Himid tells me on the phone from her home in Preston, a few days after the opening at Spike Island. “I went to marches, protests, it was part of my life. My mother was a textile designer and she loved anything artistic, so she took me to art galleries, and showed me the beautiful patterns she would use. So from very early on I was drawn to art that had a political force, especially Bertolt Brecht. This is why I was interested in theatre design. But I became even more politically aware after turning 20. I got interested in street theatre, which was a big thing in France in the late 1970s, but not so much in Britain. And I became more confident about my own artistic expression. Then in the 80s, of course, the political situation became more extreme in the U.K., especially for minorities.”

A Major Voice for The Black British Culture

Primarily known as a painter, Lubaina Himid’s work has been shown at the Tate Modern and the International Institute for Visual Art in London, but also the Manchester Art Gallery and the Peg Alston Gallery in New York. She became a curator in London in the mid-80s and organised the Thin Black Line exhibition at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) in 1985. Alongside all of this she continued to produce her own art.

She works on both art installations and figurative painting, using strong patterns, colours and themes. With references to slavery, forced labour, colonial history, migration and the role of the “Black” diaspora in Europe, her art stood out in the British 1990s art scene.

“The good thing for me is that working with Black artists was never a lonely path. We did some early collaborative exhibitions with the Black Art Group, the Black Art Gallery in London, Nottingham, and Bristol. It was the opposite of lonely. But it was a battle, and a extra battle to say something political.”

Through her series of work ‘Revenge’ in the early 1990s, Himid was able to address “the feminist critique of painting.” It comprised twelve elements: ten paintings, an installation and a drawing on paper, which included figurative pieces depicting pairs of black women in different scenes. She contemplated and reordered “the making of history”, seeing her work as “both celebration and mourning”. In 2001, she herself reflected that some of the series’ paintings were “a musing on what would happen if black women got together and started to try to destroy maps and charts – to undo what has been done”.

“The space they occupy is filled with them and expands with their ideas,” said Lubaina Himid in the Rochdale Art Gallery’s catalogue, in 1992. “They have several strategies, they expand to fill the situation. The women take revenge; their revenge is that they are still here they are still artists, that their creativity is still political and committed to change, to change for the good.”

A decade later, Naming the Money, presented in 2004, was the first large installation of her signature ‘cut-outs’ representing African slaves in the royal courts of 18th century Europe, put to work as ceramicists, herbalists, toy-makers, dog trainers, viola da gamba players, drummers, dancers, shoemakers, map makers and painters. Naming the Money reproduced the experience of slave migration – reflecting on both dissolving identities and on the pressures imposed by our global political and economic forces.

New Art For New Times

The three exhibitions running until last spring were not necessarily a step forward in Lubaina’s career, but more of a chance for her work to be displayed across the U.K., underlining her pioneering role in the contemporary Black British art scene. The nomination, and now her winning of the esteemed Turner Prize, has highlighted the deep and continued resonance of her achievements in a shattered society, one that has been shaken by the Brexit referendum and is constantly trying to redefine its ‘diverse’ identities and the effects recent imperial history.

“I believe we can look at the past and just sincerely ask ‘where do we go from here?’ I do think that the British people have so far been better at facing the truth of history than the French for instance,” says Lubaina. “And if they can go further, it can become a source of richness, bonding and creativity for the entire society.”  

“The central theme is about how to achieve a sense of belonging. It’s about how to get a recognition of the contribution of the diasporas in our culture. Slavery is very present in today’s Britain, it’s not only an affair of the past. You see it when you look at so many buildings, at people, it’s always around me and much more visible than it was in the 1980s. Even if the detailed events related to slavery are not found in mainstream history books, I believe every part of history impacts us all the time; it does not go away”.

Exhibitions’ details:

Navigation Charts was at Spike Island, Bristol, from 20 January to 26 March; Invisible Strategies is at Modern Art Oxford from 21 January to 30 April; The Place is Here is at Nottingham Contemporary from 4th February at 1st May 2017. The Turner prize exhibition is at Ferens Gallery, Hull, until 7 January.

Melissa Chemam is a writer and freelance journalist for different European and American radios (BBC World Service, Radio France International, Deutsche Welle, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation…) and magazines (Transfuge, Public Art Review, Nouveau Projet). She also works as a project manager and researcher for the filmmaker Raoul Peck, with his production company, Velvet Film. Her book about Bristol and Massive Attack will be released in English in the spring 2018.

Images courtesy of Stuart Whipps (photographer) and Spike Island: No.1 & 3 Naming the Money (2004) One-hundred lifesize painted cut-out plywood figures, audio.