Men’s shirts

About “Legacy”

Following the exhibitions and conversations that have grown out of the portrait quilt collection, I have begun exploring the possibility of a new companion work that would focus on the generation/s that followed.

Where Windrush Voices preserves the stories and testimony of those who made the original journey from the Caribbean to Britain, this new work would consider the legacy of that generation through the lives of their children and descendants.

At this early stage I envisage a large-scale textile wall hanging of approximately four to five metres in length, constructed from a number of interconnected sections. Rather than focusing on recorded testimony, as the original portraits do, the emphasis would be visual. The work would bring together a group of around six or more individuals whose lives and achievements reflect the continuing contribution of the Windrush generation in Britain today.

The piece would explore themes of inheritance, identity, belonging, resilience, achievement and cultural continuity. My intention is not to create a historical record in the same way as the original quilts, but to create a collective portrait that speaks about what emerged from the sacrifices, struggles and aspirations of the Windrush generation.

Textile journal in chapters.

Working on various paintings and in sketchbooks continuously. You can catch up with more informal updates on Substack

Top left - Owen’s mum, a gift.

Top left: In Botticelli's painting, Venus emerges from the sea on a shell, already a complete image of beauty. She has barely arrived in the world before she is presented to us. The wind blows her towards the shore, while the figure waiting on land holds out a cloak to cover her. Venus is born and immediately becomes an object of contemplation. Her body is not painted as ordinary flesh. Botticelli stretches and elongates part of her, idealising her, making her less like a real woman and more like an idea of beauty itself.

There is something almost absurd about the original scene when you reduce it to its simplest terms: a naked goddess arrives on a shell and someone immediately rushes over with a covering. In my painting, I wanted to keep some of that strange theatricality, while replacing the Renaissance ideal of beauty with the much more complicated contemporary experience of being an image. It’s not finished of course and will have eyes and a digital stream instead of a puff of breath. Phones will litter the shore and cctv will replace trees.

And you know me, because it’s important, the puff of breath will be an actual digital steam for “SHE IS BORN FROM WHAT WE MADE”. Here is the binary:

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