Hew Locke OBE RA
Europa, 2007
Plastic, metal, fabric, and wood
80 × 37 × 9 1/2 inches (203.2 × 94 × 24.1 cm)

In Europa, Hew Locke constructs a visage from the bright detritus of contemporary life—plastic toys, beads, and ornamental fragments that retain the gloss of their former use. These materials operate semiotically, their synthetic permanence at odds with their perceived disposability, suggesting how objects outlast intention and accrue meaning over time. The past, here, feels fixed and irretrievable, yet continually reframed—history held in place by surfaces that refuse to fade.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Hew Locke moves fluidly between histories, a sensibility shaped by his upbringing in Guyana and longstanding life in Britain. That layered identity surfaces materially: beads, plastic trinkets, ship forms, and ornamental excess accrue like the sediment of empire, trade, and migration. In Locke’s hands, these humble, globally circulated objects become baroque and burdened – simultaneously celebratory and critical – suggesting that identity itself is constructed from the glittering debris of history.