Lubaina Himid

Both from what I saw in class and from briefly researching some of the artists shown on today’s presentation, the artist who engaged me the most was Lubaina Himid. While Himid is a multimedia artist, it was the included video on her installation “Lost Threads” that caught my eye, her deliberate use of cotton a demonstration of the silenced voices responsible for creation’s possibility in the first place. Whose fabric? Whose clothes? Who threads whose threads? Himid states: “I wanted to highlight some of the sort of stories, histories, politics and even patterns that are sort of left out of some of the histories of cotton and show how those histories are still there, threading their way [through the space].“ This quote struck me in that, beyond further contextualizing “Lost Threads,” it framed the piece as inherently narrative, similarly to how I had broadly painted textile work in my reflection. Her story threaded in pieces, a web in layers with its patterns stitched together by hand. It would be reductive to solely call “Lost Threads” a commentary. Blackness as associated with anything other than suffering is synonymous with invisibility within the narrative of history, and, in and of itself, defying erasure is an automatic condemnation of this suppression. Himid’s work is a celebration. Swooping and looping in patterned glory, the threads are reminiscent of party streamers.

As the video we watched a snippet of in the afternoon focused on textiles (naturally), I was surprised to see that the majority of Himid’s work was in painting. I most enjoyed her "Naming The Money” series. The work conjured craftsmanship more than design, the process of making and doing. I imagined Himid on her feet painting blue, red, yellow, brown onto each character. My initial reaction proved fitting given that each of the hundred characters represents an enslaved person or servant. According to Himid’s website, “Each cut-out has a real name, each one is able to to say who they actually are but each one lives with their new name and their new unpaid occupation attempting somehow to reconcile the two. Every person in the installation is trying to tell you something, each has a voice that can be heard via the soundtrack playing in the gallery space or as text on an invoice collaged to his/her back.” Their gaudy getups are another statement: “They [the cutouts] looked like servants or were dressed in the clothes of courtiers, they often provided the entertainment just by looking different and were at their most useful as the greatest conspicuous display of wealth imaginable.” Unlike traditional statues, the ones in “Naming the Money” are flat, yet radiate the life that classical sculpture seemed bent on swallowing into stillness. They are not silent. Half set-piece, half paper doll, yet never person, these theatrical figures dance about the room like tarot-card cutouts (the dog trainer is particularly reminiscent of the major arcana's fool) come to life. They embody individuality and archetype at once, a seeming contradiction embodied by the fact that some of the same silhouettes and symbols are applied to multiple characters who, nonetheless, sport unique outfits and facial features. The thrust of the installation shouts: “the people are different, the ideas are not!” This was SCRUMPTIOUS!

Sources

https://lubainahimid.uk/portfolio/naming-the-money/

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/lubaina-himid-frank-hals-1712310

https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/naming-the-money-sketches

https://www.countereditions.com/artists/lubaina-himid/himid-tate-21years.html

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/692550

https://www.selvedge.org/blogs/selvedge/lubaina-himid-lost-threads

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=403tfQB9oTQ

Part 1

Part 1

Textile Craft Lubaina Himid

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