Harlesden High Street - In the House of Babylon Exhibition

I I was given the opportunity to create artwork for Harlesden High Street, a POC led gallery space with a mission to bridge social and cultural gaps within the field of contemporary art through working with and providing resources for underrepresented artists.

The group exhibition ‘In The House of Babylon’ seeks to reflect on the cultural and aesthetic legacies of music in Harlesden. The exhibition was born of the desire to speak back to the creeping gentrification of what were previously predominantly black and working class areas in London.

The exhibition transforms the gallery into a re-imagined record store from the perspectives of artists living and working in the borough and the two sites become entwined, with Harlesden High Street becoming the embodiment of the contemporary afterlives of Reggae and Black music more broadly in Harlesden.

Story about the piece - A portrait homage to Sister Nancy and her prolific 1982 hit single ‘Bam-Bam’. A personal interpretation of the album cover, I attempt to convey the upbeat energy of the song, working with the texture of the table in order to create visual rhythms and a synergy of movement. The artwork was created live in the Harlesden High Street exhibition space, with backdrop of the neighbourhood I grew up adding to a wealth of inspiration as I drew the portrait. With the sunny weekend weather and flow of people walking past the space and interacting with us, this energy is preserved within the art work itself.

Artwork Info - Sister Nancy, 2022
Pencil, Pastels and oil on wood
50 x 50cm