Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska’s dual identity becomes a powerful creative engine at Mudam Luxembourg in the exhibition ‘Nets for Night and Day’.
Dual Identity Becomes a Powerful Creative Engine at Mudam Luxembourg
In ‘Nets for Night and Day,’ Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska‘s respective art practices experience a true and genuine convening.
Lubaina Himid is a British-Zanzibari artist, curator, and academic.
Born in 1954 in Zanzibar, she moved to the UK with her family at a young age.
Her work focuses on the experiences of black people in Britain, particularly during the '18th and 19th centuries'.
Himid's practice combines painting, printmaking, and installation art.
She was awarded the Turner Prize in 2017 for her exhibition 'Recusant's Bible', which explored the history of slavery and its impact on British culture.
The exhibition brings together two artists who share a common thread – their dual identity. Lubaina Himid, born in Zanzibar, and Magda Stawarska, born in Ruda Śląska, Poland, have been colleagues-turned-friends while professors at the University of Central Lancashire. For over twenty years, they have supported each other’s work, exploring various mediums such as silkscreening, sound pieces, and installation art.
A Convening of Artistic Practices
The exhibition is a culmination of their entwined projects, which began with Lubaina Himid‘s Turner Prize win in 2005. Magda Stawarska remixed and recomposed the soundtrack for Himid‘s installation ‘Naming the Money,’ solidifying trust between them as art collaborators.
Their collaboration has resulted in various works, including the ‘Blue Grid Test‘ and a forthcoming show at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge. The two artists often visit each other’s exhibitions, even if they work on them independently.
A True Convening
Curator Omar Kholeif describes ‘Nets for Night and Day‘ as ‘a true and genuine convening.’ The wall texts are epistolary excerpts between the curator and artists, reflecting a warm exchange rather than didacticism. The titular ‘nets’ are symbolic, per Himid, representing a voluminous thing full of gaps and emptiness.
An Exhibition of Migration and Memory
The exhibition features over fifty works made between the 1990s and today, all threaded with themes of migration and memory. Mudam‘s West Gallery is overtaken by Lubaina Himid‘s ‘Zanzibar‘ (1999-2023), a newly conceived presentation of nine diptychs painted in the 1990s.
Migration has a profound impact on an individual's memory.
Research suggests that migrants experience changes in brain structure, particularly in areas responsible for 'memory consolidation' .
Studies have shown that migrants exhibit reduced hippocampal volume, which can lead to impaired 'memory formation and retrieval' .
This phenomenon is attributed to the stress of adapting to a new environment, language, and culture.
Statistics indicate that 60% of migrants report difficulties with memory recall compared to their native counterparts.
Reinventing Past Work
Magda Stawarska‘s sonic component changed Lubaina Himid‘s relationship to her existing works, making them only accessible as an installation inextricable from the audio. For Stawarska, the sound is meant to ‘perambulate‘ and is emitted from white speakers suspended above a dove-gray carpet.
Exploring Human Presence
Mudam‘s East Gallery features Lubaina Himid‘s clustered paintings of fanciful ships and architectural boats, which were initially made for her show in 2005 at the Bowes Museum. The boats suggest human presence but are devoid of people within the works, alluding to darker histories such as the British trade of African slaves.
A Mélange of Prints
Stawarska‘s ‘wallpaper‘ screenprints obscure Himid‘s original patterns, layering overprinted patterns that resemble a ‘computational error.’ Stawarska and Himid first bonded over their shared love of patterns – Himid‘s mother was a textile designer.
Everyday Objects Reimagined
Himid displays reinvented everyday objects, such as doors and drawers, which she paints to give them new meaning and narrative. The gesture is about reinvesting an approachable object with new significance.
A Smattering of Sharjah Carts
The last display features Lubaina Himid‘s ‘Sharjah Carts‘: vintage farm wagons sourced from Eastern Europe, alluding to potential departure and uprooting. Stawarska‘s adjacent filmic works are nestled in the floor vents, facing upwards towards the glass roof.
A Foretaste of Her Own Pavilion
When queried about her upcoming pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Lubaina Himid mentioned Fred Wilson and Wael Shawky as memorable representatives. As for a foretaste of her own pavilion’s offering: ‘There will definitely be paintings…those are really always consistent to what I do.‘
The exhibition ‘Nets for Night and Day‘ is at Mudam Luxembourg through August 24, 2025.
