On view
Running through 1 April, the Life Between Islands exhibition aims to feature the new identities, communities and cultural varieties shaped by the Caribbean diaspora in Britain.
According to writer George Lamming, “we became West Indian in London”, and the artwork demonstrates how people from the diaspora “have created a distinctly Caribbean-British culture while influencing British society as a whole”.
Journeying across the ocean from its initial exhibit at Tate Britain to the Art Gallery of Ontario in Canada, Life Between Islands showcases over 40 artists from the Caribbean or of Caribbean heritage — including Frank Bowling, Vanley Burke, Hurvin Anderson, Aubrey Williams, Donald Locke, Horace Ové, Sonia Boyce, Claudette Johnson, and Alberta Whittle — via paintings, documentary photography, films, and sculptures.
Its curators David A Bailey and Alex Farquharson have organised the exhibition in chronological order from 1923 to 2022, and covering “the role of culture in decolonisation, the meaning of home, the reclaiming of ancestral traditions, the nature of Caribbean and diasporic identity, as well as racial discrimination and socio-political conflict”.
