Through Holes in the Clouds: Artists and the Postcolonial Imagination 

Exhibition
Through Holes in the Clouds: Artists and the Postcolonial Imagination

Through Holes in the Clouds: Artists and the Postcolonial Imagination is an expansive six-month presentation that explores the reverberations of British colonialism and its after-lives through the lens of two generations of artists from across the globe.

In a year that marks the 80th anniversary of the partition of British India and the creation of India and Pakistan, this exhibition provides a timely moment to reflect not just on the historical and political legacy of the British Empire, but on the complex effects of rupture, re-membering and reimagining.

Through the prism of modern and contemporary art and across generations, geographies and practices, Through Holes in the Clouds explores the break in regimes of visual and political representation provoked by the struggles for independence, while exploring how the aftermath of Empire continues to shape the world we inhabit today. Importantly, the exhibition focuses on the artistic, poetic and creative strategies harnessed by artists in the wake of rupture from British imperialism to make sense of changing identities and new world order.

The title of the exhibition, Through Holes in the Clouds, is taken from a poem by the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish and foregrounds a poetic response as a framework for understanding how the postcolonial condition has shaped both individual and collective imaginations, alternating between hope and disappointment, transparency and opacity.

Participating artists include:

Bani Abidi (b.1971, Pakistan); Dia al-Azzawi ​(b.1939, Iraq); Bashar Alhroub ​(b.1978, Jerusalem); Taysir Batniji (b.1966, Palestine); Zarina Bhimji ​(b.1963, Uganda); Frank Bowling ​(b.1934, French Guiana); Clifford Charles ​(b.1965, South Africa); Avtarjeet Dhanjal ​(b.1940, India); Rita Donagh ​(b.1939, England); Rita Duffy​ (b.1959, Ireland); Ibrahim El-Salahi ​(b.1930, Sudan); Catherine Katonoko Gombe ​(Uganda); Richard Hamilton (b.1922, England; d.2011, England); Mona Hatoum ​(b.1952, Lebanon); Somnath Hore ​(b.1921, Bangladesh; d.2006, India); Sohrab Hura ​(b.1981, India); Runa Islam ​(b.1970, Dhaka); Idris Khan ​(b.1978, England); Moshekwa Langa ​(b.1975, South Africa); Louis Mbughuni ​(b.1938, Tanzania); Nasreen Mohamedi ​(b.1937, Pakistan; d.1990, India); Mohammed Joha ​(b.1978, Palestine); Lucy Skaer (b.1975, England) and Rosalind Nashashibi (b.1973, England); Sam Joseph Ntiro ​(b.1923, Tanzania; d.1993); Huang Yong Ping ​(b.1954, China; d.2019; France); Tracey Rose ​(b.1974, South Africa); Mohammed Sami ​(b.1984, Iraq); Larissa Sansour (b.1973, Jerusalem); Moonis Ahmad Shah (b.1992, Kashmir); Anwar Jalal Shemza ​(b.1928, India; d.1985, England); Yinka Shonibare ​(b.1962, England); Lucky Sibiya ​(b.1942, South Africa; d.1999, South Africa); F. N. Souza ​(b.1924, India; d.2002, India); Michaela Yearwood-Dan ​(b.1994, England); Ala Younis (b.1974, Kuwait).