Hew Locke in Conversation with Ekow Eshun
Hear Hew Locke discuss his artistic practice with Ekow Eshun, curator of the Hayward Gallery’s latest exhibition, In the Black Fantastic.
Hew Locke was born in Edinburgh, UK in 1959. He spent his formative years, 1966 – 80 in Guyana before returning to the UK to complete an MA in sculpture at the Royal College of Art.
Locke explores the languages of colonial and post-colonial power, how different cultures fashion their identities through visual symbols of authority, and how these representations are altered by the passage of time.
These explorations have led Locke to a wide range of subject matters, imagery and media, assembling sources across time and space in his deeply layered artworks.
In 2022, Locke was awarded Tate Britain's Duveen Hall commission. His work was included in the major group exhibition, Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 1950s – Now at Tate Britain in 2021/22.
In 2019, Locke's comprehensive solo exhibition, Here's the Thing, opened at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK, before touring to the USA.
Ekow Eshun is chairman of the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group and the former Director of the ICA, London. He is the author of Africa State of Mind, nominated for the Lucie Photo Book Prize, and Black Gold of the Sun, nominated for the Orwell prize.
He is a contributing editor at Wallpaper magazine and is a member of the advisory board of Liquid Blackness journal. He is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from London Metropolitan University.
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Approximate run time: 75 mins.
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