The World Reimagined will see trails of over 100 large globe structures in seven cities across the UK from 13 August – 31 October 2022. The sculptures will be created by artists to bring to life the reality and impact of the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans and invite the public to engage with the dialogue and actions of making racial justice a reality.

All artists will create globes responding to the themes ranging from ‘Mother Africa’ and ‘The Reality of Being Enslaved’ to ‘Still We Rise’ and ‘Expanding Soul’. Each globe will enable the public to experience, discover and be inspired by art as well as present the opportunity to be part of the discourse around racial justice and what it means to be British.

THE ARTISTS

Suchi Chidambaram
Suchi Chidambaram is a painter, born and raised in Southern India. She moved to London in 1998 and works from her studio in Acton. Mainly self-taught, her work focuses on narrating her experience of a place and its people through rapid palette knife marks using oil paints. Her interpretations are not painted in situ but from memory, allowing fragments of visual data to mingle with her subjective and emotional responses. The resulting work varies between figuration and abstraction.  In 2021, Suchi’s work Parallel conversations was selected to be part of the I Matter Exhibition curated by Lincolnshire-based Olu Taiwo, who sought work by ethnic minority artists themed around the title I Matter and all its iterations.  Suchi has been an ACAVA artist since 2008. She held her first solo exhibition at the Nehru Centre, London in 2006 and has since participated in numerous exhibitions across England as well as India, Italy, Bahrain, UAE and  Oman.

Dreph
Dreph is a visual artist working across a wide range of media. With a focus on portraiture and painting the human figure, Dreph’s subjects are everyday people, friends, family or those he meets whilst painting in the streets. With exploration of color and an attention to sartorial detail, he uses his work to tell his subjects stories. He is inspired, as much by 80s British sci-fi comics and New York subway art, as he is the old masters. Dreph is passionate about the cultural and creative exchange that can be shared whilst traveling and this has profoundly informed his practice. After 3 decades of street based painting, Dreph’s work can be found in Asia, Africa, the UAE, Central, South and North America and throughout Europe. Dreph is an Illustration lecturer at Portsmouth University.

Jasmine Thomas- Girvan
Jasmine Thomas-Girvan was born in1961 in Jamaica and has lived in Trinidad since 2000. A sculptor, trained in jewellery and textile design, she received her BFA from Parsons School of Design in New York.

Vashti Harrison
Vashti Harrison is a #1 New York Times-bestselling author-illustrator of children’s books. She has a background in filmmaking and a love for storytelling. She is the author and illustrator of the best-selling middle grade books Little Leaders, Little Dreamers, Little Legends, and the illustrator of the best-selling picture books Hair Love by Matthew Cherry and Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o, which received a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor. Vashti is also a two-time recipient of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for Children. Originally from Onley, Virginia, she now lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Birungi Kawooya
Birungi Kawooya is a collage artist and teacher inspired by nature, the beauty of Black women and the ingenuity of dance from the African diaspora using batik, paper and paint. Her portraits celebrate Black womanhood, elevating rest, joy and wellbeing.  Nostalgia and family also inform her practice, from memories of kitchen discos with her siblings and Kiganda dancers at weddings. She creates art she wants to see more of in the world and therefore her primary theme is depicting Black women, usually with flawless jet-Black skin. Birungi seeks to elevate Black women so that they can see themselves as works of art and gain self-esteem. In 2020 she reflected on how Black women are pivotal in leading social justice movements and decided to focus on compelling Black women to protect their dream space with the “Sisters Need Sleep” collection.

Richard Mensah
Richard Mensah is a British Ghanaian London based artist who works with and paints in different media. He describes himself as a born artist as he has had no formal art/painting education or training. His love of drawing, sketching and painting was noticed at a very young age and in the very early years of his education in Ghana where he was born. Although his artistic talents has always visible, he was persuaded to pursue Science instead of art in his secondary education.

Susan Thompson
‌Susan Thompson is an abstract painter based at Kindred Studios, London. Her interest in art started in childhood. Although she has spent the majority of her working life nursing;‌she has always made taken time to engage in some form of art making and further education.‌ ‌This‌ ‌has‌ ‌included‌ ‌completing‌ ‌an‌ ‌Art‌ ‌Foundation‌ ‌Course‌ ‌at‌ ‌the‌ ‌Camberwell‌ ‌School‌ ‌of‌ ‌Art‌ ‌in‌ ‌1984,‌ ‌an‌ ‌Art‌ ‌Therapy‌ ‌Postgraduate‌ ‌Diploma‌ ‌at‌ ‌Goldsmiths‌ ‌College‌ ‌in‌ ‌1990‌ ‌and‌ ‌more‌ ‌recently,‌ ‌a‌ ‌BA‌ ‌Hons‌ ‌Fine‌ ‌Art‌ ‌Degree‌ ‌at‌ ‌Oxford‌ ‌Brookes‌ ‌University‌ ‌in‌ ‌2014.‌ ‌

Alison Turner
Alison Turner is a professional mosaic artist known for her quirky approach to mosaic art. She creates artwork for gallery exhibitions, private collections and public installations. Describing herself as an “Artistic Recycler” Alison sets stone next to broken pottery, discarded ceramics next to glass thus creating eclectic work that will be admired for years to come.