When

Where

Summary

5 April – 11 July 2023
Wednesday–Sunday, 11am–5.30pm (5pm close on Sunday)
Admission free – no booking

The Migration Museum is exhibiting a new installation by multidisciplinary visual artist EVEWRIGHT as part of this year’s Windrush 75 anniversary celebrations, exploring the artist’s own perspectives on growing up in Lewisham as the child of parents from the Windrush generation:

Lewisham: About Face
EVEWRIGHT

Lewisham has always been a place where migrants from all over the world have gravitated to, especially from the Caribbean since the arrival of the Empire Windrush in 1948.

The famous Lewisham market fed families economically, and later, when Lewisham Shopping Centre was built, it became a shiny penny in the area. In the late 70s and 80s, the centre became a focal point for youth culture. It was somewhere to go on a date after a visit to the Wimpy bar or Odeon cinema. It was a magnet for youngsters who gravitated to the array of exciting new shops like C&A, Chiesmans, Army & Navy, Chelsea Girls and the Black Market.

This installation is my own unique perspective on growing up in Lewisham as the child of parents from the Windrush generation, reflecting on the places and the forgotten heroes of Lewisham’s past and present that have shaped my life.

It’s a homage to my mother, Clarice Reid, and the influences of my father, Lindon Wright. My brothers and sisters and other key local individuals appear in this work as part of a discourse of what it means to be Black and British today.

Listen to an interview with EVEWRIGHT and explore audio and video from the installation
View press release

About EVEWRIGHT

EVEWRIGHT is a British artist, with parentage from Jamaica. He is a multi-disciplinary visual installation artist, who challenges public environments to make spaces for Black British stories to exist and thrive. His work is a conscious ‘mash up’ of drawing, sculpture, combined with digital film and live installations. He explores the intricate connections between the body and our experience of the modern environment, and communicates this through bold interactive art, also using urban and rural landscapes as his canvas. He creates mirrors where he can see and recognise himself to instigate conversations in the mainstream about what it means to be Black and British in the UK today.

EVEWRIGHT’s work include exhibitions at The Royal Academy of Arts, BFI and Firstsite Gallery Colchester and a series of site-specific art and sound installations including Tilbury Bridge Walkway of Memories, a  site-specific art and sound installation on one of the walkways used by passengers when they disembarked from the Empire Windrush at Tilbury Port, and Caribbean Takeaway Takeover, held in Lloyds Bank London, Migration Museum London in 2019, and a Caribbean café in Colchester in 2018.

His sculptural work includes ££ Kissi Pennies $$, a series of sculptures that challenges the notion of value, currency, slavery and trade that is inspired by modern day migration and the ancient African former currency Kissi Pennies.

EVEWRIGHT is also concerned with socio-political issues of place, space and the movement of peoples. He explores film, storytelling in relation to drawing and his practice goes beyond the decorative and the 2D, employing drawing as a documentary tool to give voice to hidden stories and hidden peoples.

Find out more:
Websites: www.evewright.com, www.evewrightarts.org
Twitter: @evewrightstudio
Instagram: @evewrightstudio 

Acknowledgments

This installation is dedicated to the memory of EVEWRIGHT’s mother Clarice Agatha Reid (3 Feb 1935 – 10 Apr 2020), and the many loved ones from the Windrush Generation who have left a lasting legacy for future generations.

Artist and Curator
EVEWRIGHT

Curator – Migration Museum
Ghafar Tajmohammad

Producer
Ionie Richards

Artwork Installers
Migration Museum

Installation Design
Evewright Studio

 A Portrait of Mr Pink – Producer/Director
Helena Appio

Clarice Agatha Reid audio
Hosted at Essex Record Office

Special thanks to:
Monica Duck, Weston Wright, Vivienne Whitehorne, Errol Wright, Delroy Wright, Sharon Ford, Leo Wright

Funders
This project is a partnership between EVEWRIGHT Studio Productions and the Migration Museum and supported using public funding by Arts Council England.

Image: Lewisham: About Face – ‘Where I began’ and ‘Brother Weston’ © EVEWRIGHT. All rights reserved 2023