Archive

From Two Worlds included work by artists all living and working in Britain, but from a wide variety of cultures spanning Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the Middle East. The participating artists were the Black Audio Film Collective, Saleem Arif, Denzil Forrester, Sonia Boyce, Franklyn Beckford, Sokari Douglas-Camp, Veronica Ryan, Zadok Ben-David, Shafique Uddin, Tam Joseph, Rasheed Araeen, Lubaina Himid, Gavin Jantjes, Houria Niati, Keith Piper and Zarina Bhimji. This was the first time many of these artists were shown in Scotland.

The exhibition was premised on the notion that all of the artists drew ‘a common inspiration from the reconciliation of the two worlds to which they belong’ and it aimed to increase awareness of the contribution to global culture that these artists were making (Fruitmarket exhibition guide, 1986). It included painting, sculpture, drawing, mixed media and audio-visual pieces.

The exhibition toured from the Whitechapel Gallery in London, where it was selected with the assistance of Sonia Boyce, Gavin Jantjes and Veronica Ryan. It was accompanied by a catalogue with an introduction by Nicholas Serota and Gavin Jantjes and an essay by Adeola Solanke.

Exhibition summary written October 2020, Ruth Bretherick (Research and Public Engagement Curator, Fruitmarket).