Simeon Barclay's 'Farewell Sweet Innocence' at John Hansard Gallery

Simeon Barclay's exhibition 'Farewell Sweet Innocence' at John Hansard Gallery in Southampton explores themes of exclusion and belonging in modern Britain. The show features installations including crappy white PVC doors adorned with Star Wars Imperial Guard stencils that block entry to nowhere, a locked enclosure with an empty bin and taxidermy pigeons, tatty mountain bikes locked to a rack, bus seats pinned high on walls, and a ripped parachute. Half-and-half football scarves with Romelu Lukaku's face hang from a ceiling fan. A giant inflatable Donald Duck is wedged in a corner. The exhibition references cinema, football, music, and Windrush. Barclay was nominated for the Turner Prize weeks before the show. The work is described as razor-sharp, funny, pop-cultural, and obtuse conceptual art about growing up black in Britain. The dense, uncontextualized references may challenge visitors, but the sense of partial inclusion may be intentional.