My name is Lucie and I’m the UAL Art Collection Coordinator. For this post I’m considering the theme ‘Body, Mind, Spirit’. This is the 2021 LGBT+ History Month theme and I’d like to pick up on those three words to provide a platform for the voices and works of UAL Art Collection artists who may look at gender identity in person-centred and reflective ways, may deal with the body’s treatment in more objectivised scenarios, or may celebrate the spirit and empowerment of the self.
In their collaged photographic works such as ‘The Swage (2)’, @BoiHugo who studied MA Photography at London College of Communication, initiates a conversation on the objectified body: interchangeable gaze, fetishism, oppression and audacity. Found material is spliced with original photography, displaying the artist's voyeuristic observation of a hegemonic masculinity and fragments of life. @BoiHugo's spotlight on manifestations of masculinity and how they relate to racialized subjectivities and the male body gives voice to an under-represented segment of society, of which they are a part.
Image and artwork description credit: @BoiHugo, The Swage (2), 2018. UAL Art Collection. © the artist. boihugo.com
Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, who graduated from MA Painting at Wimbledon College of Arts, uses her own body as the subject of ‘Man thing (Self Portrait)’, part of a series titled ‘varume vakadzi! vakadzi varume!’, which explores gender identity and gender politics in Zimbabwe and wider Africa. Hwami says of the painting:
“Through memory, I revisit places and spaces I encountered growing up in post-colonial Zimbabwe and utilize those memories by recreating a parallel universe that centres on a futuristic narrative of Zimbabwe... The black body plays the central character in my paintings, acting as the vehicle to express themes on sexuality, gender, spirituality, memory and childhood. Having lived in South-Africa, Zimbabwe and England; displacement and identity is a recurring theme in my work as I try to understand my Zimbabwean identity within the African Diaspora. The work could be read as autobiographical… My aim is to re-frame and construct an alternative perspective of the Zimbabwean body.”
Image and artwork description credit: Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, Man thing (Self Portrait), 2015. UAL Art Collection. © the artist. victoria-miro.com/artists/240-kudzanai-violet-hwami
Katerina Demetriou-Jones’ work is a new acquisition for the collection following her graduation from BA Illustration and Visual Media at London College of Communication. Nurturing a love for new worlds that aren’t controlled by the patriarchy and phallogocentric thought, she creates illustrations where womxn live and do as they please.
In this series titled ‘Radiant Rooms’, a new world is depicted as a surreal hotel representing the multidimensional nature of wxmen, where gender binary constrictions don’t dictate people’s lives. Characters interact with objects and symbols which allow them to create their own narratives. This world thrives on ambiguity and welcomes androgyny, intersectionality, feminism and representation, ultimately demonstrating there is not one way to be a womxn.
Image and artwork description credit: Katerina Demetriou-Jones, The Teardrop Pear Beauty Parlour, from the series Radiant Rooms, 2020. UAL Art Collection. © the artist. katdemicious.co.uk
Favour Jonathan, a Central Saint Martins BA Fine Art graduate, says of her powerfully material yet spiritual sculpture, ’Divinity’: "[She] stands as a symbol of strength, her body made from copper and steel as a way of articulating the resilience and power from the women of colour before us and beside us. Those who have influenced and motivated me and other young black girls in society today. Giving us the confidence and freedom to grow with their movements, politics, craft, stories work and words. Every metal fragment welded together to create the strong standing structure that is Divinity."
Image and artwork description credit: Favour Jonathan, Divinity, 2019. UAL Art Collection. © the artist. favourjonathan.tumblr.com
Another new acquisition for the collection is ‘Brown Girl in the Art World III’, a film by BA Fine Art graduate Rene Matić. Their work explores the immeasurable dimensions of Blackness through the lens of their own personal experiences as a queer, Black womxn living in the diaspora. In doing so, Matić aims to expose, combat and question the power relations that pervade the art world and society more widely.
Image and artwork description credit: Rene Matić, Brown Girl in the Art World III, 2019. UAL Art Collection. © the artist. www.renematic.com
For any enquiries relating to these works or the UAL Art Collection in general please contact Lucie Pardue by emailing l.s.pardue@arts.ac.uk or ualcollection@arts.ac.uk. To view the whole collection please visit our webpages.