Naming the money is the largest installation of Lubaina Himid’s exhibition at Spike Island, Bristol and has only been shown once previously in its entirety. Comprising of 100 life-size printed figures on freestanding wooden grounds. The figures depict shoe, toy, and map-makers, drummers, dog trainers, ceramicists, herbalists, viola da gamba players, dancers and painters. Visitors to the exhibition can walk among the figures. The figures represent Africans brought to Europe as servants and given new names and roles.
Lubaina Himid is a contemporary African artist and Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of Central Lancashire. Her art focuses on themes of cultural history and reclaiming identities. She was one of the first artists involved in the Black Art movement in the 1980s and continues to create activist art which is shown in galleries in Britain, as well as worldwide. Spike Island is an international centre for the development of contemporary art and design.
We can often emerge ourselves far too much in the whirlwind of events outside our immediate control. Watching people scurry around Bristol like bees in a hive. I recognise three kinds of people walking the city streets today. Those who walk quickly and intensively, eyes focussed on the pavement and avoiding contact. The person who walks eyes forward with a warm, yet disconnected gaze, as if they can see through solid objects. The third type of person stands still for a moment, looks up and has WOW emanating from their glowing facial expressions, as if to say, “sometimes we forget the simple things often give the greatest pleasure.”
Location: Here
“The big wheel keeps on turning
On a simple line day by day
The earth spins on its axis
One man struggles while another relaxes”
Massive Attack: Hymn of the Big Wheel
Irregular Frequencies 