Hastings Contemporary reopens with "spectacular" shows

Hastings Contemporary has reopened with two spectacular exhibitions – Lakwena Mciver’s Homeplace and Stephen Chambers’ The Court of Redonda, running until the end of February.
Work by Lakwena MaciverWork by Lakwena Maciver
Work by Lakwena Maciver

Ian Roberts, director of communications Hastings Contemporary, said: “Lakwena Maciver, one of the UK’s most exciting contemporary black artists, creates painted prayers and meditations, which respond to and re-appropriate elements of popular culture. Central to her practice are words, used as both images and anchors of meaning.

“Exploring the role of the artist as myth-maker, with their use of acid-bright colour and bold typographic text, her paintings act as a means of decolonisation, subtly subverting prevailing mythologies. The approach is instinctive and autodidactic, producing visceral, rhythmic and immersive panel paintings, iconic murals and installations.

“Lakwena’s most recent body of work exhibited for the first time at Hastings Contemporary focuses on the interplay between her practices as both artist and mother of two young sons. Responding to feminist author bell hooks’ essay Homeplace (a site of resistance), and in the tradition of African women across the diaspora, Lakwena has been painting the walls of her home to create a space of affirmation, empowerment and resistance upon which will sit her panel paintings.

“Challenging both the external and the internalised voice of mass media, Lakwena has created works in the public realm internationally, from installations at Tate Britain, Somerset House, Facebook and the Southbank Centre in London to a juvenile detention centre in Arkansas, a monastery in Vienna and the Bowery Wall in New York City.”

Lakwena said: “What’s this exhibition about? Well it’s about me singing over my home, my family, my community. I’m an artist and a mother, and I guess I’m looking at where those two roles cross over. My art is concerned with mythologies; things we hold to be true and I want to tell the truth to my kids.

“These are words of affirmation, words that will encourage, warn and inspire. I know that they go out into the big wide world and I can’t control what happens out there. They’ll hear things and be influenced by things that I have no control over.

“But I can ensure that in my home I am sending them clear messages about who they are, their value, their worth, what to do in times of need, where to go to for help, what to set their hearts on, what is important. So that’s what these paintings are about.

“My intention is to create a safe space for them. As these paintings and images of them travel, literally and virtually, my hope is that they might act as sparks to encourage others to define spaces of safety and also as signs to point people to places of safety.”

First shown at The Venice Biennale in 2017, Stephen Chambers’ The Court of Redonda depicts a cast of 101 imaginary courtiers inspired by a literary legend that developed around the tiny uninhabited Caribbean island of Redonda. This legend took shape as a fantasy in the mind of Matthew Dowdy Sheill, a merchant trader who claimed the island in 1865 and gave himself the title of king. The title passed down to his son, who decided that it should be given to poets and novelists as a form of literary honour. The celebrated novelist Javier Marías was a recent sovereign and his appointment of courtiers, including film director Pedro Almodóvar and novelists AS Byatt and Ian McEwan, inspired Chambers to create his own imaginary court of Redondans: not just poets, philosophers, artists and writers, but also patients, pharmacists, harlots and ‘bums.’

The Court of Redonda is joined in this exhibition by other series of works by Chambers exploring histories, both real and imagined. Casanova follows the life and loves of the eponymous figure., filling the gaps between his young adulthood and his renown whereas Trouble Meets Trouble depicts twenty characters who, through living in differing eras or locations, residing in the pages of books or existing in mythology, could never in fact meet.

Stephen explains: “I tend to work in chapters and I create paintings by taking an idea and then resolving it. The characters in these works are real people, whose personalities and thoughts interest me. I like the paintings to be beautiful, …but not necessarily the people to be beautiful. As an artist I am interested in the process of painting, (creating works) but suspicious of virtuosity.”

Liz Gilmore, director of Hastings Contemporary, said: “Hastings Contemporary Gallery finishes this extraordinary year with two hugely exciting and thought-provoking exhibitions by two internationally significant artists: Lakwena and Stephen Chambers. Responding directly and positively to the challenges of our time Lakwena’s vibrant two-room exhibition will challenge and delight. Chambers’ stunning series of works take the viewer on an imaginative journey where we can reflect and learn on our own world order. Both exhibitions remind us of the vital role artists play as storytellers and mythmakers.