Dream Boats (2022)

Overview

Lubaina Himid’s artistic and curatorial practice illuminates the omissions and hypocrisies of western colonial histories, centring the contributions of marginalised figures, particularly Black individuals, to cultural life in Europe. Displayed in various empty shop fronts in Sharjah, Dream Boats (2022) is a series of interpretive commercial shop signs that feature imaginary vessels and fragments of text. Through the phantom voices of these familiar signs, Himid’s work remembers the cruel history of slave ships transporting captured Africans and further conjures up surreal and luminous vessels free from confinement.