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| Locke Hew Born in 1959 in Edinburgh. Lives and works in the UK. Hew Locke has adopted, questioned and subverted the visual display of those in power and those who aspire to power. From Europe to Africa; from the throne room of Versailles to the gold-plated Kalashnikovs of Saddam. An old proverb states “In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king”. Locke's Kingdom of the Blind is a voodooesque frieze of 13 monumental figures, a fictional collection of the possessions of an imaginary ruler. Depicting this leader’s rise to power, the figures enact victorious moments in battle, and act as elaborate votive objects. It draws on the iconography of battles as seen in the friezes of Ramses the 2nd (the original king of kings from Shelley's poem Ozymandias) and the British Museum's Assyrian Lion Hunts, using fake leather handbags, plastic animals, doll parts, flowers, chains and toy weapons. This chaotic and flamboyant commemoration of individual power becomes a poignant parody of today’s social and political global climate. How Do You Want Me? is a series of life-size photographs -a portrait gallery of inherently sinister figures- corrupt kings, tyrants and bandits, all carrying regalia of State. Each is a demonic Nemesis, a threat to the state turned in flesh. The photos are both messy and chaotic, as we live in a whirlwind of change and insecurity. You can feel the power of the characters, and at the same time their impotence, decay and perversion. Like many tyrants, they contain the seeds of their own destruction. Locke said “I literally put myself inside of my own work, and presented the characters as they would have wanted. I felt I was acknowledging the potential for violence within each of us”. It is also a response to the art world’s privileging of one type of “authenticity” over another, as it trawls the globe looking for sexy “undiscovered” talent. How Do You Want Me? is the question many people ask when having their portrait taken at a high-street photographer. How should they pose in order to be acceptable? Locke is saying “OK, if this is how you want your black artists to be, then I can project that image for you”. In 2004 - 2005 Locke made 3 large queens heads - a gold one (El Dorado) a black one (Black Queen) and a silver one (Koh-i-noor), which referenced the many different coloured portrait heads of Queen Elizabeth II which appear on British postage stamps. The screws used to hold plastic items in place allude to the nails used in African Fetish figures (Fetish figures portray powerful supernatural or ancestral figures who are dangerous and must be respected). Koh-i-noor means "Mountain of Light", it was once the largest known diamond in the world. The Koh-i-noor originated in India and belonged to various Indian and Persian rulers who fought bitterly over it at various points in history, and was eventually seized as a spoil of war and became part of the British Crown Jewels when Queen Victoria was proclaimed “Empress of India” in 1877.  Download CV |  Kingdom of the Blind, detail, 2008 |
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