BHM 365 | ELSA JAMES' "ODE TO DAVID LAMMY"

BHM 365 | ELSA JAMES’ “ODE TO DAVID LAMMY MP” INSTALLATION

Available to view until Monday 30 October 2023

Art installation inspired by the Tottenham MP in 2018, responding to the Windrush scandal.

We are delighted to welcome at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre an artwork by artist Elsa James, titled ‘Ode to David Lammy MP’, a piece inspired by an emotive speech by the Tottenham MP in 2018 responding to the Windrush scandal.

Elsa James is a conceptual artist and activist working across live performance, film (in which she also performs), text in digital formats and silkscreen prints on paper, spoken word poetry, and, more recently, large-scale neon text and sound.

Her current artistic research focuses on the British Empire and the profundity of transatlantic slavery, diaspora and belonging.

It is an honour to receive and present this work of art to the Tottenham community as part of the Windrush 75th Anniversary.

The artwork installation, which is supported by Freelands Foundation, will be on display in our window gallery until Monday 30 October 2023.

 

ELSA JAMES

Elsa James (born in 1968, London, England) is a conceptual artist and activist who lives and works in Essex. She completed a BA in Fine Art as a mature student at Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London, in 2010 and a Postgraduate Certificate in Participatory and Community Arts at Goldsmiths College, University of London, in 2015.

She works across live performance, film (in which she also performs), text in digital formats and silkscreen prints on paper, spoken word poetry, and, more recently, large-scale neon text and sound. Since 2018 she has pursued an incisive exploration of the historical, temporal and spatial dimensions of what it means to be Black in Essex—building critically on Gillian Darley’s assertion of Essex as ‘England’s most misunderstood county’. Her current artistic research—shifting away from Essex as a location and subject matter—focuses on the British Empire and the profundity of transatlantic slavery, diaspora and belonging, which she draws from the influential 2018 speech by David Lammy MP in response to the Windrush scandal.

Elsa has presented, screened, and exhibited projects nationally and online internationally, including Birkbeck Cinema, London (2023): Tate Britain, London (2023); Gagosian, London (2023); Art Exchange, Colchester (2023); TJ Boulting, London (2022); South London Gallery, London (2022); Focal Point Gallery, Southend, (2022); Goldsmith CCA, London (2022); Firstsite, Colchester (2021); RadicalxChange Conference, New York (2020); Furtherfield, London (2019); Tate Exchange, London (2019); Autograph (ABP), London (2018) and Site Gallery, Sheffield (2018).

In 2021, she was a finalist for the prestigious Freelands Award with Focal Point Gallery and, this year, a nominated recipient of the Henry Moore Foundation Artists Award in recognition of support for her practice. Her work is held in private and public collections, including the Government Art Collection and Beecroft Art Gallery, for which she became the first female Black British artist to be acquired into the gallery’s permanent collection. In 2022, she was named one of the 50 Most Influential People in Essex.

Tickets: FREE (external art installation - no registration required)

Until Monday 30 October 2023

FREE