Oceans Apart

- Blurb -

This fascinating book traces the connection between Britain and theCaribbean in the visual arts from the 1950s to today, a social andcultural history more often told through literature or popular music. With its multi-generational perspective, it reveals that the Caribbeanconnection in British art is one of the richest facets of art in Britain sincethe Second World War, and is a lens through which to understand theCaribbean diasporic experience in all its social, cultural, psychologicaland political complexities across generations. Featuring around 40 artists - among them Aubrey Williams, FrankBowling, Althea McNish, Donald Locke, Sonia Boyce, Isaac Julien, BlackAudio Film Collective, Lubaina Himid, Peter Doig, Chris Ofili, SteveMcQueen, Alberta Whittle, and many more - it includes a variety ofworks mostly by UK-based African-Caribbean artists, but also by artistswho were not originally from the Caribbean but who relocated thereor have made important work about it. Arranged chronologically itsheds light on a number of themes such as Caribbean modernism,social and political struggles, subculture and its policing, the front roomas a private and public space, after-images of slavery and the MiddlePassage, and syncretic and creolised metaphor and allegory (carnival,folklore, new world religions). Readers will find themselves charting acourse between two worlds: London or other urban localities in the UKand images of formerly British Caribbean nations. With contributions by a variety of authors, including Paul Gilroy andfashion designer Grace Wales Bonner, Oceans Apart presents post-warBritish art history in its global and transnational dimensions, and revealshow these were shaped by the struggle against Empire and its legacies.