Barbershop, Hurvin Anderson (2006-2023) (EMPIRE LINES x The Hepworth Wakefield)

Curator Isabella Maidment steps into Hurvin Anderson’s studio and barbershop, a point of cultural connection between Birmingham and the Caribbean, reconstructed at the Hepworth Wakefield. Contemporary artist Hurvin Anderson first painted a barbershop in Birmingham in 2006. For more than 15 years, he has returned to and reworked this space, an important social setting, especially for men, in Black British communities. As a second-generation migrant, whose parents migrated from Jamaica, Anderson practiced in the post-Windrush diaspora in 1980s Britain, creating works which connect cultures in Britain and the Caribbean - and Life Between Islands. As Salon Paintings, the first complete exhibition of the Barbershop series, opens at The Hepworth Wakefield, curator Isabella Maidment talks about Anderson’s surreal use of mirrors and layers, why he thinks of the barbershop like an impressionist cafe, and how this particularly regional setting can travel and translate across the country and Europe. Hurvin Anderson: Barbershop and Hurvin Anderson Curates runs at the Hepworth Wakefield in West Yorkshire until 5 November 2023, then at the Hastings Contemporary in East Sussex, and the Kistefos Museum, Norway, into 2024. For more, you can read my article in recessed.space: https://recessed.space/00107-Hurvin-Anderson-salon-painting Part of EMPIRE LINES' Windrush Season, marking the 75 year anniversary of the HMT Empire Windrush's arrival in the UK from the West Indies. Listen to the other episode from Indo + Caribbean: The creation of a culture at the Museum of London Docklands: https://pod.link/1533637675/episode/c475cec4c78ad87b9cf73326b823cb8c WITH: Isabella Maidment, Senior Curator at The Hepworth Wakefield. She is a co-curator of Hurvin Anderson: Salon Paintings. ART: ‘Is it OK to Be Black?, Hurvin Anderson (2015)’. PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES on Twitter: twitter.com/jelsofron/status/1306563558063271936 And Instagram: instagram.com/empirelinespodcast Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: patreon.com/empirelines