20/20 meet the artists: Karen McLean
- Written byKatie Moss
- Published date 27 July 2023
In June, UAL announced the twelve emerging and mid-career artists in the second of 2 cohorts for 20/20: a national commissioning and network project directly investing in the careers of a new generation of ethnically diverse artists.
20/20 was launched in November 2021 by UAL Decolonising Arts Institute, working with a network of 20 UK public collections, museum and gallery partners, and with funding from Freelands Foundation, Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants Programme and UAL.
We caught up with Karen McLean about being selected for the second cohort of artists for 20/20. Her residency is taking place at the Walker Art Gallery, in Liverpool.
Tell us about your artistic work, discipline & background
"I explore my experiences of growing up in post-independence Trinidad in the sixties. This was a time of significant social change that saw the dismantling of old colonial structures and the removal of barriers for Black and ‘mixed-race’ people like me. Alongside the civil rights movement in America, this moment saw the start of cultural reconstruction that expanded the rights of Black people. These histories inform my identity and my art.
"My multi-disciplinary practice is rooted in historical research that explores colonialist legacies and their ongoing traumas. I work across moving image, sound and installations that incorporate evocative and symbolic materials such as sugar, blue carbolic soap, wood, and hessian bags. My work merges materials with memories, mythology, and historical narrative to destabilize people’s assumptions and open new interpretations. My early work explored how imperialist architecture is often used to coerce and manipulate populations. More recently I have explored domestic imagery and materials to interrogate the violent histories and legacies of enslavement, displacement, and socialization."
Why did you apply for the 20/20 project?
"I applied for the 20/20 project as it was the perfect opportunity for me to participate and influence the decolonising of the arts in institutions. I envisaged that my work would challenge the public’s ways of viewing colonialism and its continued legacies, as well as drive cultural, social, and institutional change.
"As an artist who has been operating on the periphery of the dominant narrative for many years, the ethos of the project to address structural inequalities was attractive to me. I hope that the project will result in the host institution thinking differently about their collections and the colonial connections to them. Specifically, being a part of 20/20 based at the Walker Gallery in Liverpool gives me the opportunity to have some visibility and impact on a collection, and to have meaningful dialogue with curators, writers and communities in a city that is built from the wealth derived by its wealthy merchants from the labour of enslaved Africans."
What conversations, thoughts or feelings do you hope to encourage amongst your audiences during your residency?
"I hope to engage with the collections from a very different perspective. Wealthy merchants, who built the city with their wealth, are very well represented in the collection and displays.
"The gallery has a good collection of quilts. I am very interested in discovering if these were made from the cotton that was grown and picked by enslaved people in the Americas and the West Indies and then shipped back to Liverpool and then onto Lancashire. Like fragments, these pieces of history must be woven together and made complete. I hope to encourage new ways of seeing these collections, to stimulate and bring to life the rich histories behind these pieces and to encourage conversations that were not previously held or were consciously neglected."
Follow Karen McLean on social media:
Instagram: @karenmclean_art | karenmclean.co.uk