Tate’s new exhibition points to its own sordid past

Exhibitions like Life Between Islands seek to unpick the tangled threads of colonial oppression that Britain so often makes efforts to hide.

Starting with artists from the Windrush generation, who came to Britain in the 1950s, Bailey’s exhibition explores issues of diaspora and identity through the disparate landscapes of Britain and the Caribbean, as well as the vast waters that divide and connect them.

Bailey says that these are themes people continue to grapple with. ‘Major European powers have a postcolonial history. Different generations emerge and those baggages get taken on and they resurface. That will never go away.’.

While the exhibition marks a celebration of Caribbean-British culture, highlighting the reggae, carnivals, and elaborate art works it has produced, institutions like Tate continue to fail the communities they owe their success to.

In 2017, Gal-dem called out the gallery after its ‘racist mishandling’ of author Reni Eddo-Lodge’s talk at the venue. Despite thousands of people turning out to see Lodge at previous events, Tate insisted the talk be reserved for a smaller space to ensure tickets could be sold for free. After fans were left disappointed and turned away in droves, Tate placed the blame on Lodge, who made an apologetic statement on Twitter shortly afterward.

Gal-dem were amongst countless netizens quick to fire shots. ‘The treatment Eddo-Lodge received by the Tate is emblematic of the issues outlined in her book [Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race]. Namely, that structural racism is rife’, they stated in a charged article.

And that isn’t the only time Tate’s come under fire for racist commentary. Just last year, they were forced to take back their reference to their restaurant, The Rex Whistler, as ‘the most amusing room in Europe’, after complaints of racist depictions in its 1920s mural.

Be it a blatant ignorance to the racist systems that have, and continue to uphold Tate’s influence, or a conscious effort to exploit those on societies margins in order to keep wallets fat and reputations clean for those at the top, Britain’s cultural institutions have a long way to go in accurately representing the country’s past, present, and future.

Because of course, as Bailey’s new exhibition attests, that timeline wasn’t shaped by a white population. The threads that weave those markers of time, the spaces, cultures, and people that shaped the tapestry of Britain that exists today, have a colossal reach.

Life Between Islands is a reminder that each of those threads is as vital as the next. But Tate and other colonially-empowered institutions are ultimately the ones who continually benefit from these shows of diasporic pride.

An increase in BAME staff members and inclusive apprenticeship schemes are welcome steps forward. But placing the burden for change onto the shoulders of specific individuals does little to impart tangible progress.

Bailey is one of thousands to have held these institutions historically accountable. But as it stands, claims of self-reflection amongst Britain’s museums appear to be nothing more than complaisant navel-gazing.

‘Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 1950s – Now’ is now showing at Tate until April 2022.