Hew Locke
What I try to do in my work is mix ideas of attraction and ideas of discomfort – colourful and attractive, but strangely, scarily surreal at the same time.
Hew Locke
British sculptor and contemporary visual artist Hew Locke has created a new and exciting, large-scale installation for the 2022 Tate Britain Commission. The Procession invites visitors to ‘reflect on the cycles of history, and the ebb and flow of cultures, people and finance and power.’ Tate Britain’s founder was art lover and sugar refining magnate Henry Tate. In the installation, Locke says he ‘makes links with the historical after-effects of the sugar business, almost drawing out of the walls of the building,’ also revisiting his artistic journey so far, including for example work with statues, share certificates, cardboard, rising sea levels, Carnival, and the military.
Throughout, visitors will see figures who travel through space and time. Here, they carry historical and cultural baggage, from evidence of global financial and violent colonial control embellished on their clothes and banners, alongside powerful images of some of the disappearing colonial architecture of Locke’s childhood in Guyana. The installation takes inspiration from real events and histories but overall, the figures invite us to walk alongside them, into an enlarged vision of an imagined future.
The annual Tate Britain Commission invites artists to create a new artwork in response to the grand space of the Duveen Galleries. Artists who have previously undertaken the commission include Heather Phillipson, Anthea Hamilton, Cerith Wyn Evans and Pablo Bronstein.
Installation View, Hew Locke: The Procession, Tate Britain, London, UK. Photo by Joe Humprhys
Installation View, Hew Locke: The Procession, Tate Britain, London, UK. Photo by Joe Humprhys
Installation View, Hew Locke: The Procession, Tate Britain, London, UK. Photo by Joe Humprhys
Installation View, Hew Locke: The Procession, Tate Britain, London, UK. Photo by Joe Humprhys
Installation View, Hew Locke: The Procession, Tate Britain, London, UK. Photo by Joe Humprhys
Installation View, Hew Locke: The Procession, Tate Britain, London, UK. Photo by Joe Humprhys
Installation View, Hew Locke: The Procession, Tate Britain, London, UK. Photo by Joe Humprhys
Installation View, Hew Locke: The Procession, Tate Britain, London, UK. Photo by Joe Humprhys
Installation View, Hew Locke: The Procession, Tate Britain, London, UK. Photo by Joe Humprhys
Installation View, Hew Locke: The Procession, Tate Britain, London, UK. Photo by Joe Humprhys
Installation View, Hew Locke: The Procession, Tate Britain, London, UK. Photo by Joe Humprhys
To look back on the past 12 months in art-making, below is a survey of some of the most important artworks made or presented in a new light in 2022.
Locke’s stunning, sensuous spectacle of pattern and color, just like the grand tradition of Caribbean carnivals, hints at sinister elements that undergird the whole endeavor.
His piece is deliberately ambiguous, leaving it open to many different interpretations, all of them intriguing. The overall effect is spectacular.
For a hit of culture, head to these fabulous exhibitions across the capital
Hew Locke discusses his grand commission for Tate Britain, a poetic work of sculpture examining colonial legacy, global finance and the human bodies at the end of the paper trail
The artist's new Tate Britain Commission is a blazingly ambitious cavalcade of humanity, melding past and present, joy and pain
Guyanese-British artist will create four sculptures that draw on the New York museum's collection
Hew Locke’s new installation at Tate Britain shows 150 full-sized figures on a journey through history
A new large-scale installation by Hew Locke, "The Procession" features nearly 150 life-sized figures outfitted in hand-made garments and masks.
In a major new commission for the Tate museum group in London, the British-Guyanese artist returns to the themes of empire and postcolonial reckoning that have fascinated him throughout his career.
The Procession, installed in the Duveen Galleries, references the museum's historic links to the sugar industry and slavery
Ambitious, accomplished and fascinating, this incredible piece features 150 figures in masks and hand-sewn costumes journeying through Tate Britain
New work evokes ideas of pilgrimage, migration, trade, carnival, protest and social celebrations
There’s a post-colonial, anti-capitalist carnival happening at Tate Britain. And if that doesn’t sound like much fun, that’s because it isn’t. It’s serious.
Locke’s new work The Procession is a coming together of ideas he’s been exploring for nearly 30 years - and now people are talking about them
Tate Britain today unveiled The Procession, a major new installation by artist Hew Locke, the latest in the gallery’s ongoing series of annual commissions. Locke has taken over Tate Britain’s monumental Duveen Galleries with almost 150 life-sized figures – staging a powerful, unsettling and fantastical procession. Intricately hand-made, and bold in its use of colour, this extraordinary installation assembles a myriad of images and materials. It is Locke’s most ambitious project to date, bringing together themes he has explored throughout his career.
