Lubaina Himid RA, Naming the Money paperworks

Naming the Money paperworks, 2004

Lubaina Himid RA (b. 1954)

RA Collection: Art

On free display in Collection Gallery

Lubaina Himid's 'Diploma work' relates to her Turner Prize-winning installation piece Naming the Money (2004, see https://lubainahimid.uk/portfolio/naming-the-money/).This work addresses the hidden but immense contribution of the Black diaspora to the economic and cultural foundations of modern Europe.

Himid reflects that while developing the project she became pre-occupied primarily with the ‘naming’ aspect of the work; grappling with ‘the dilemma of losing your name, being relieved of your real identity, being saddled with another... and how you then have to invent something else equally real…to make sense of being alive'. The installation, which the artist presented to the International Museum of Slavery, National Museums Liverpool, features 100 life-size cut-out figures. These represent, as Himid describes it: 'the story of the slave/servant but also of the émigré and the asylum seeker. Each cut-out has a real name, each one is able to say who they actually are but each one lives with their new name and their new unpaid occupation attempting somehow to reconcile the two'.

The figures in Naming the Money are based on one of the ten roles depicted in these pairs of paper-works: ceramicists, herbalists, toy makers, dog trainers, drummers, viola de gamba players, dancers, shoemakers, map makers and painters. In the installation, these are accompanied by a soundtrack with the voices of the figures telling their stories.

Himid produced these paper-works early on in developing the installation project and describes them as somewhere between a sketch and a ‘pitch’, ‘a way of thinking through’ and showing how the cut-out sculptures would look. Each pair features one painted figure and one in collage to represent different characters in the same role.

Himid states: ‘I became really excited by the endless possibilities for colour, texture, and decisions about the clothes and objects.The expression on the face of each person was different, the process opened up more opportunities for dialogue between the cut-outs themselves, between now and then, between art and politics. Although these works are quiet and sedate compared to the installation, in my head this was the point at which I knew the whole thing was going to work'.

Lubaina Himid's paper-works for Naming the Money are currently on display in the Collection Gallery at the Royal Academy, see https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/lubaina-himid-diploma-work

Object details

Title

Naming the Money paperworks

Artist/designer

Lubaina Himid RA (b. 1954)

Date

2004

Object type

Drawing

The Artist

Dimensions

455 mm x 610 mm

Collection

Royal Academy of Arts

Object number

21/34

Acquisition

Diploma Work given by Lubaina Himid RA accepted December 2020

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