At last year’s artist-run Multiverse Summit held at Eastside Projects, Birmingham, The White Pube delivered a hard hitting provocation to all artist-led spaces within the UK, challenging their complacency and unacknowledged racial bias. Urging artist led spaces to tackle institutional racism and the lack of presence of people of colour within the arts at all levels, it triggered a direct response from Test Space at Spike Island who, as a first step, have initiated the project, ‘Why Are We Not Here?’

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This exhibition – launching over Spike Island’s busy Open Studios weekend – showcases the work of eight artists who work with sound, installation, print, poetry and painting mediums, including a programme of talks and workshops that further question the complacency of arts institutions.

My work as part of 'Why Are We Not Here?' asks questions around lack of representation and inclusion in British art spaces and galleries. I speak with a series of BME creatives around their experiences working in the arts sector, what obstacles are faced on a daily basis, and hopes for the future. The work is a portrait series that showcases the difference in the individual experience, and what needs to change within institutions in order to create any sustainable change. The work is a platform for voices to be heard, and acts as a catalyst for important conversations to be started.' 

 

Featured artists include curators Stacey Olika, Fatima Safana, Donnell Asare, Kiara Corales,  Nadia Lloyd, Anika Deb, Courtenay Welcome, Nick Ogri, Jasmine Thompson, 

 

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Interviewees include Adibah Iqbal, Lily Green, Will Taylor, Tim Lo, Jamel Alatise, Courtenay Welcome.