Catalogue relating to an exhibition, 2007
Published by: Bradford Museums, Galleries & Heritge
Year published: 2007
Number of pages: 32
ISBN: 0 94 6657 59 9

Crossing the Waters was first exhibited at Cartwright Hall, before touring to the City Gallery, Leicester, 19 January - 1 March 2008. The exhibition featured work by Sonia Boyce, Uzo Egonu, Tam Joseph, Isaac Julien, Glenn Ligon, Hew Locke, Chris Ofili, Keith Piper, Ingrid Pollard, Yinka Shonibare, Carrie Mae Weems, and Aubrey Williams. All but two of the artists were of British background; Ligon and Weems were African-American practitioners.

Crossing the Waters (1 September - 2 December 2007), was one of a number of exhibitions that took place throughout 2007 as part of Freedom & Culture 2007: The Bicentenary of the Parliamentary Abolition of the Slave Trade. The Foreword to the Crossing the Waters catalogue, by Mark Suggitt, Head of Museums, Galleries & Heritage at Bradford Museums Galleries & Heritage, included references to how the exhibition had come about. Wrote Suggitt, “An interesting fact about Crossing the Waters is that almost all of the works are drawn from the permanent collections of Bradford Museums, Galleries and Heritage. The works were acquired, it must be stressed, because of the artists’ positioning within contemporary British art. However, the Bicentenary provided an intellectual and historical rationale for showing these works as a group, albeit a very diverse one.”

Earlier in his Foreword, Suggitt had stated, “Crossing the Waters makes a significant contribution to Freedom and Culture, a dynamic, year-long, nationwide programme that marks the bicentenary of the Parliamentary Abolition of the Slave Trade in the British Empire. Freedom and Culture has been conceived and directed by Professor Lola Young of Cultural Brokers and Dr Nima Poovaya-Smith of Alchemy.”

The exhibition was accompanied by a sizeable catalogue, A4 portrait, extensively illustrated with colour plates of work by each of the twelve artists represented. Colour plates also appeared on the front and reverse of the catalogue. Furthermore, the back cover of the catalogue had a flap which formed a pocket containing large postcards by two of the exhibiting artists, Ingrid Pollard and Yinka Shonibare.

Exhibition catalogue as follows:

Front cover: Yinka Shonibare, The Wanderer, 2006-07

Back cover: Chris Ofili, Afro Lunar Lovers II, 2005, Giclée and silk screen on paper, embossed with hand applied gold leaf, 48 x 31.2 cm.

(All works illustrated are from the Collections of Bradford Museums, Galleries and Heritage unless otherwise stated.)

Foreword, Mark Suggitt, Head of Bradford Museums, Galleries & Heritage

Introduction (three page essay) by Dr Nima Poovaya-Smith, Director, Alchemy. In her essay, Poovaya-Smith discusses the artists in the exhibition, beginning with an appraisal of Shonibare’s The Wanderer. subsequently, she suggests that, “Crossing the Waters is also a metaphor that operates in an historical and contemporary context, literally and symbolically, within real geographic locations as well as virtual spaces and, most importantly, within constructs of the artist’s creative imagination. It moves from Africa and the Caribbean to the West and the Americas and back again.”

There then followed artists’ plates and one-page biographical summaries on each of the artists: Sonia Boyce, Uzo Egonu, Tam Joseph, Isaac Julien, Glenn Ligon, Hew Locke, Chris Ofili, Keith Piper, Ingrid Pollard, Yinka Shonibare, Carrie Mae Weems, and Aubrey Williams.

Selected Bibliography

As mentioned, the back cover of the catalogue had a flap which formed a pocket containing large postcards by two of the exhibiting artists, Ingrid Pollard and Yinka Shonibare.