Lubaina Himid Print Commissioned for UK Diplomatic Buildings
The Turner Prize-winning artist's collage alludes to the slave trade and the emerging climate refugee crisis.
Lubaina Himid and Minister of State Julia Lopez MP with Old Boat, New Weather (2021). Photo by Tristan Fewings, Getty Images.
Artist Lubaina Himid CBE has received the Robson Orr TenTen Award 2021, a commission to create a limited edition print that will be displayed at British diplomatic buildings around the world.
Her screen print Old Boat, New Weather (2021) was unveiled at Number 11 Downing Street in London yesterday.
The print depicts a barn-like structure — inspired by the rundown homes of freed slaves the artist encountered in Carolina, USA — superimposed upon a trade ship to create an ark.
Himid said the image offered 'a chance to hold history back' as climate change threatens mass displacements reminiscent of the slave trade.
The Robson Orr TenTen Award is sponsored by American film producer Sybil Robson Orr and her husband Matthew Orr, a British financial services entrepreneur. It's presented by the Government Art Collection with the Outset Contemporary Art Fund.
'After such an extraordinary year it feels fitting to have this powerful work about histories, refuge and home as the 2021 print,' said Sybil Robson Orr and Matthew Orr.
Launched in 2018, the annual award has previously been given to Hurvin Anderson (2018), Tacita Dean (2019), and Yinka Shonibare (2020).
Old Boat, New Weather has been printed in an edition of 30 plus six artists' proofs. Fifteen were collected by the government for display in UK buildings and embassies abroad. Another 11 are being sold through the Outset Contemporary Art Fund to raise funds to buy works by emerging artists.
The UK Government's cultural efforts abroad were set back when The British Council announced this month that it would close 20 offices abroad due to budget cuts. —[O]
