Lubaina Himid's Tate Modern Exhibition Confronts Imperialism and Black Culture

Lubaina Himid's solo exhibition at Tate Modern in London, running until October 2, 2022, explores the tension between control and vitality through works like 'Metal Handkerchiefs' (2019), nine painted metal sheets referencing African Kangas. Born in Zanzibar in 1954, Himid returned to Britain as an infant after her father's death, and sea voyages recur in her work. 'Old Boat/New Money' (2019) features 30 five-meter planks painted in sea-gray tones, accompanied by water sounds created by Stawarska Beavan, evoking the transatlantic slave trade. Himid questions the human experience of slavery beyond statistics. 'Le Rodeur the Exchange' (2016) depicts five disoriented figures on a ship, referencing the 1819 French slave ship Le Rodeur where infected slaves were thrown overboard for insurance. 'A Fashionable Marriage' (1986-2014) reimagines William Hogarth's 'Marriage à la Mode' series as a theatrical set made of recycled cardboard, replacing musicians with art world figures and depicting Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan as adulterers. Himid shifts Black figures from background to center: the chocolate server becomes a stately woman symbolizing African art's vitality, and the child becomes a young activist with a gun. The exhibition marks a milestone for a Black woman artist at Tate, following Himid's Turner Prize win in 2017.