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Jack Arts

Tate Britain: Life Between Islands

Alongside Tate Britain’s Life Between Islands, a landmark showcase of seventy years of Caribbean-British art, we’re working as their media partner to bring heritage stories from the community back onto the streets of London, creating a city-wide street exhibition.

Having received universal acclaim, Life Between Islands “explores the work of artists from the Caribbean who made their home in Britain, alongside other British artists whose work has been influenced and inspired by Caribbean themes and heritage.” Centring around the formations of community and identity, it celebrates visionary artists, photographers, designers and creatives who have altered the course of British culture and transformed contemporary society through their practices.

Designed as a community-orientated extension to Life Between Islands, our pop-up street gallery with Tate Britain is taking over our billboards, as well as buildings, spaces and places across the capital, sharing newly told stories about London’s Caribbean communities and cultural heritage. It highlights cinemas, markets, clubs, libraries, community centres and restaurants – inviting passers-by and those intentionally exploring the route to hear the voices of people who have loved, used, and perhaps had their identity and work shaped by, the locations featured.

Stories from the likes of Steve McQueen CBE, Hew Locke, Grace Wales Bonner, Neil Kenlock, Wyn Baptiste and Ingrid Pollard cover Ridley Road Market in Dalston, Crystal Palace Farm, the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton, Notting Hill Carnival’s Trini Hall, Alexandra Palace, Matchstick Piehouse in Deptford, and many, many more community spots, taking inspiration from English Heritage’s Blue Plaque scheme with over 40 stories and sites to explore.

The pop-up exhibition with Tate Britain brings the experiences of artists, community leaders and Tate’s own staff network together, subsequently forming a beautiful picture of how Caribbean-British culture came to thrive in London – despite politicised existences and, unfortunately, hostile political environments.

Director, screenwriter, and producer Steve McQueen CBE has contributed his memories of Saturday School trips to the Macbeth Centre in Hammersmith that fuelled his sense of pride and community from a young age: “As a black child growing up in the UK, you are politicised from the start. You find yourself asking the questions, who, why, how and what? This spot marked the place I attended Saturday school at five years old. For me, it was a space in which I felt a sense of pride and community within what was otherwise a hostile environment. It was, in many ways, the making of me, and many others, I am sure of it.”

Each location in the project can be found on a map guide here, covering the north, south, east and west of London – on view until 6th March 2022.

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