Bahamian artist wants us to see the light
Tavares Strachan, photo by Miho Suzuki, courtesy of the artist
Daniel Nelson
Bahamian artist Tavares Strachan’s exhibition at the Hayward Gallery is called There Is Light Somewhere. There is, and he’s found it.
It’s a sparky, creative show that seems to have its origins in a boyhood thought when he was studying his father’s Encyclopaedia Britannica: Why doesn’t it include people from The Bahamas?
Or, indeed, more people of African descent.
He’s not the first to make the point - see African diaspora art: from ‘looking at’ to ‘seeing from’. But 46-year-old New York resident Strachan attacks it with variety, creativity and a sense of fun.
It’s most direct in his own personal Encyclopaedia of the Unseen, a large room papered with some of the 17,000 entries he has collected, “a home for lost stories”. At the centre of the room, like an object of veneration, sits an unopened tome: the book itself.
It’s a striking statement about African achievements.
Similarly striking is a large outdoor model of a ship in an infinity pool on the terrace in front of the London skyline, bow pointed to Africa. The surprise and incongruity of the vision grabs the attention. The Black Star Line was a short-lived but potent symbol established by US rights campaigner Marcus Garvey. (None of its ships ever reached Africa so it could also be used as a symbol for the failure of Panafricanism.)
Garvey is one of many Black people highlighted by Strachan, including Matthew Henson, who may have been the first explorer to reach the North Pole in 1909; Henrietta Lacks, whose unusual cancer cells — without her knowledge or consent without her knowledge or consent — have powered vast areas of medical research for decade; King Tubby, the nickname of Jamaican sound engineer Osbourne Ruddock, who pioneered Dub music; Kojo Tovalou Houénou, a Benin-born critic of French colonialism; US astronaur Robert Henry Lawrence Jnr; controversial Nobel Literature prizewinner Derek Walcott; and murdered South African anti-apartheid campaigner Steve Biko.
Equally varied are the artforms used to deliver the message. The opening rooms feature large multi-media collages embracing an array of people and objects, highlighting “the connective tissue of human experience”. Also on show: a large Buganda-style “intergalactic palace” with an iron oxide floor (and a terrific soundtrack of speeches and quips), a variety of statues, notably of joyful hairstyles (made from hair collected from Bahamian barbershops) and pots topped by European busts split open to reveal an emerging African head.
There’s more, too, such as the tank containing a glass cast of Lacks’ nervous system, the words of James Baldwin, the appearance of Nina Simone.
Not everything hits the mark. But what a delicious melee, what a vital cause, what enjoyment and use of art for protest.
* There Is Light Somewhere, work by Bahamian artist Tavares Strachan, £18, under-12s free, other concessions available, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE12, until 1 September. Info: Hayward Gallery
Exhibition events:
+ 27 June, discussion, Alayo Akinkugbe, Ekow Eshun and Habda Rashid explore key issues and themes of cultural visibility and art-as-protest in Strachan's exhibition, 7.30pm, £8
+ 13 July, Emperor Haile Selassie I and Marcus Garvey: The complex relationship between two African Giants, Ras Benji, 2pm, free
+ 20 July, Tavares Strachan in Conversation, with Emma Dabiri, 7.30pm, £12
+ 3 August, Hidden Histories and Archives, Aleema Gray, and Hammad Nasar discuss the importance of bringing hidden histories to light and forming inclusive archives, £8