Hales Gallery is delighted to announce Hew Locke's inclusion in the upcoming exhibition 'Un | Fixed Homeland' at Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art. Organized by Guest Curator Grace Aneiza Ali this landmark exhibition brings together an inter-generational roster of thirteen emerging and established Guyanese artists who, via photography and photography-based art, examine the complex relationship to “homeland.” There will be an opening reception on 17th July from 2-5 pm, with the exhibition running until 17th September 2016.
In the exhibition the artists explore how a “homeland” can be both fixed and unfixed, a constantly shifting idea and memory, and a physical place and a psychic space. The exhibition’s title reflects the emergence of the Caribbean diaspora in metropolitan cities around the world and speaks to what has become the defining global movement of the 21st century—migration.
In Un | Fixed Homeland, the artists employ innovative use of the photographic medium—the archival image of British Guiana, contemporary photography on present-day Guyana, self-portraiture, studio portraiture, painted photographs, passport photos, family albums, selfies, photography in video installations, and the documentary format, among others—to unpack global realities of migration, tease out symbols of decay and loss, and envision the experiences of, as well as pathways out of, displacement and dislocation.
While specifically focused on the visual culture and new modes of viewing Guyana, the exhibition also frames Guyana, “fixed or unfixed homeland,” as symbolic of larger pressing global concerns of our 21st century—the tensions between place and placeless-ness, nationality and belonging, immigrant and citizen.
Hew Locke
'Un | Fixed Homeland'
Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art
591 Broad St,
Newark,
NJ 07102,
United States
17 July - 17 September 2016
