Category: Art
Romany artist Delaine LeBas exposes the hidden history of UK Gypsies, in a new exhibition at the Phoenix Brighton gallery. With a reputation across Europe for work that confronts stereotypes and addresses issues around the outsider in society, it is fitting that Delaine LeBas’ first major solo UK show draws our attention to the little known treatment of Gypsies closer to home.
In the first half of the 20th century the British Government built makeshift compounds in the New Forest to contain Gypsy families. At Phoenix Arts in Brighton Delaine LeBas will recreate and occupy her own version of these compounds in an immersive installation made up of her own hand printed and embroidered textiles and costumes alongside photography, film and archival material. Two glass and metal lanterns from the collection of Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford serve as the central metaphor and catalyst for this new body of work. Resembling similar lamps from India, these ones were made in the New Forest and remind the artist of the ‘magic lantern’ shows her grandmother and great uncles recounted from their childhood in Hampshire. These artefacts will be brought back to life through Delaine’s stories, performances and activities.
Delaine LeBas is a UK based artist from a Romany background. Although only beginning to become known in Britain she has shown in France, Baltimore USA, at the 2005 and 2007 Prague Biennales. Her work featured prominently in the first Roma pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2007 and in Korea’s Gwangju Biennale. Her work has recently been seen at Galerie Giti Nourbaksch, Berlin and at Galleria Sonia Rosso, Turin. Unusually for an artist considered to be an ‘Outsider’ she is a graduate of Central Saint Martins and West Sussex College of Art and Design.
By it's very nature Delaine LeBas’ work is both intensely personal and deeply political, informed by her gypsy background and dealing with issues of exclusion, untold stories and stereotypes that are ingrained into the human consciousness. Delaine explains ‘As a Romany, my viewpoint has always been that of the outsider and this position of the 'other' is reflected in the materials and messages within my work. We live in a culture of mixed values and garbled messages. My works are crafted from the disregarded and disparate objects of the car boot sale and the charity shop. A bricollage of materials. Employing the materials of everyday, all formed together in a manner that allows them to be precious yet reclaimed.’
Opening times: Wed – Sun, 11am – 5pm, Late openings: Fri 16th & Sat 17th May until 9 pm
Find out more about her upcoming exhibition at this link.