Installed in the Duveen Gallery at Tate Britain, Hew Locke’s aim is, in his words, to “mix ideas of attraction and ideas of discomfort – colourful and attractive, but strangely, scarily surreal at the same time.”
I found it to be the case: bright colours and a glorious mix of textures and materials but really unnerving too. Colonial imagery abounds
amongst more standard carnival outfits
in a dense mix of macabre and festive.
Churchill’s statue in London’s Parliament Square reappropriated on this flag-cloak…
the physical signs of conflict from any number of events…
Napoleon’s death mask carried as a relic…
and stock bond certificates everywhere.
It’s a celebration of creativity and making which is indeed stimulating yet unnerving and unsettling – he definitely got his message through to me.
