Kaleidoscope: Immigration and Modern Britain


Interesting exhibition at Somerset House of photographers who draw on their experience of being immigrants and descendants of immigrants to Britain.

I loved the description on the handout that these works “present a view of British identity, not as a single monocultural lineage, but as an accumulation of multiple perspectives and memories, ethnicities and racial origins.”

It was nice to see Chris Steele-Perkins “The New Londoners” series again. They were shown earlier this year at the British Library. He is trying to photograph a family living in London from every country in the world in their living rooms. I loved Mahtab Hussain’s portraits of the community around a mosque in Tipton, West Midlands, that was nail bombed.

My favourite piece, shown here, was by Kurt Tong a multi-layered work that traces her family from China to Hong Kong and then the UK. She combined new photographs with found images and pages from family albums. I loved the sense of the present being supported by the past.

Closed 8 September 2019

Review
Evening Standard




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