The Paul Mellon Centre has prolonged a Name for Papers for a one-day workshop on Hew Locke’s set up, “The Procession”—convened by Indie A. Choudhury, Elena Crippa and Mark Hallett—to be held on October 11, 2022. The deadline for abstracts is September 4, 2022 (11.59pm, BST).
Description/Tips: ‘A colossal collage’; ‘An epic poem’; ‘A kind of puzzle’: Hew Locke’s personal descriptions of his work The Procession, an set up which at present marches in frozen majesty by way of the Duveen Galleries at London’s Tate Britain, present an eloquent indication of the piece’s complexity, scale and ambition. Locke’s monumental creation – made up of 100 and fifty life-sized, handmade figures clothed in a kaleidoscopic array of multicoloured clothes, carrying a sequence of spectacular flags, and proven as if transferring ahead in a terrific carnivalesque cavalcade – generated a unprecedented quantity of crucial reward on its unveiling because the Tate’s newest Duveen fee in March 2002 and has surprised and intrigued guests to the gallery ever since.
Allied to its sheer visible energy, the work claims sustained consideration due to its multifaceted references to a variety of extremely charged points, histories and themes. These embody the narratives of carnival, protest and ceremonial gatherings, the matters of post-colonial commerce, slavery, environmental catastrophe, empire and revolution, and the traditions of heraldry and insignia. The work can also be open to being learn in relation to the work of different trendy and modern artists, to Locke’s personal earlier follow and to the longstanding inventive tropes of monumental sculpture, historical past portray and collage. Quite a few particulars handle the historical past, architectural atmosphere and extractive practices in Guyana. The Procession additionally consciously operates in lively, crucial dialogue with the areas, collections and histories of the Tate itself, and marks a landmark second within the profession of this main Guyanese-British artist.
For all these causes, the time already appears ripe to topic The Procession to sustained crucial and scholarly evaluation, and to discover the alternative ways through which it may be interpreted, contextualised and skilled. This one-day workshop, convened by Indie A. Choudhury, Elena Crippa and Mark Hallett, and organised as a part of a wider mission that may embody the making of a feature-length movie about The Procession, is designed to generate contemporary and unique views on what’s rising as a significant paintings of our time. The day will characteristic a session with the work itself, at Tate Britain; it’ll additionally incorporate a sequence of panels on the Paul Mellon Centre. Contributors will give brief displays specializing in a specific theme or side of the work. There will probably be loads of time for common dialogue, and for conversations with the artist himself who will probably be attending the proceedings.
Fairly than formal proposals, we invite expressions of curiosity on the a part of students and college students who could be eager to take part within the occasion and ship a ten-minute workshop presentation responding to The Procession. If you’re involved in making such a contribution, please electronic mail a 150 phrase description of your proposed paper and a fifty-word biography in a single Phrase doc to efleming@paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk by midnight on Sunday 4 September.
For extra info, see https://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/whats-on/forthcoming/the-procession-cfp