WE out here 2023
We Out Here was a group exhibition at Hastings Contemporary showcasing the work of six Black artists of Caribbean heritage living and working in Hastings. Curated by Lorna Hamilton-Brown, We Out Here was an Arts Council England Lottery Funded project that included a programme of complementary workshops and talks that ran alongside the exhibition - 1 April to 4 June 2023.
For We Out Here, Elaine created two new sculptures, CO 27: Blue Tears and OG: A Kind of Blue. To complement these works, she also exhibited several framed mono screen prints from the Ghost Boat series.
CO 27: Blue Tears
CO 27: Blue Tears, 2023
CO 27: Blue Tears, 2023
CO 27: Blue Tears, 2023 detail
CO 327: Blue Tears, 2023
CO 27: Blue Tears - Copper hoops, cobalt pigment, clay, painted wood, and rubber
Dimensions - 240 x 240 x 120cm
In purely aesthetic and structural terms, the work is intended as an exercise in geometric, material and visual contrasts. As ‘CO’ is the chemical description of cobalt and ‘27’ its atomic number, the underlying concept of the work is revealed in the title. This free-standing installation was created using specific materials to reflect on predatory racist capitalism in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Copper and its byproduct, cobalt are valuable, high-demand materials found mostly in the DRC. Cobalt is used extensively in our smart phones, electronic devices and rechargeable batteries. It feeds the West’s hungry drive for green, clean energy while cobalt mining on this catastrophic industrial scale has devastating consequences for the people of the DRC and their land. CO 27: Blue Tears may have a playful and colourful appearance, but conceptually it questions the colonial, capitalist forces that permit this atrocity to continue. Juxtaposing shiny, smooth perfect copper hoops with the vibrant cobalt blue (mal)formed ‘tears’, we are drawn in to consider them in this context. Are they cute (as African children are often depicted and described) or are they sad?
OG: A Kind of Blue
OG: A Kind of Blue 2023
OG: A Kind of Blue, 2023
OG: A Kind of Blue, 2023 CU
OG: A Kind of Blue, 2023 - Reverse View
OG: A Kind of Blue, 2023 - CU Reverse view
OG: A Kind of Blue, 2023 BCU
OG: A Kind of Blue - Copper washed steel mesh, glass fragments, copper wire and blue tissue paper.
Dimensions - 244.5 x 183 x 25 cm
The term ‘OG’ started life in America in the 1970s when it was used by the Cripps gang in LA and evolved as a hip-hop acronym for Original Gangster. Now ‘OG’ is used as a term of deep respect which is Elaine’s intention here. Marrying it to the title of Miles Davis’s 1959 masterpiece, A Kind of Blue, she wanted to draw a meaningful connection between the legacy of jazz and that of the African continent as origins to be proud of. However, the fragmented glass centre ‘demarcating’ the DRC materially highlights the fractured heart of the African continent.