The Ambassadors: An exhibition of a major works by Hew Locke comes to The Lowry

The Lowry presents a collection of major new work from artist Hew Locke, opening this Saturday.

Originally commissioned by The Lowry in 2019, this will be the first opportunity to see new pieces from the acclaimed Guyanese-British artist in Salford.

Locke’s sculptural installation consists of four Black figures on horseback, acting as envoys, bringing messages from the past to the future. Their animals are weighed down with baggage, and they themselves are festooned with glittering symbols that echo our real past and cultures.

Benin bronzes, portraits of Toussaint Louverture, colonial medals, six-guns, slave pennies, and symbols of justice all feature throughout the collection. With these figures, Locke offers a counterpoint to traditional statues and monuments, subverting their symbols of colonial power, and questioning who our society chooses to memorialise and celebrate.

Since being commissioned the works have featued in the landmark group exhibition In the Black Fantastic at the Hayward Gallery in London, and Kunsthal Rotterdam. Locke’s The Ambassadors will now have a solo presentation at The Lowry.

The works will be shown alongside a bespoke wallpaper featuring imagery from Locke’s ongoing Share series; these now-obsolete historical documents are source material symbolising the history and movement of power, money and ownership. Locke reworks these certificates by embellishing them with acrylic paint, to obscure or highlight information.

The exhibition will also feature three new Share works that hold direct connections to north-west England including certificates from the Manchester Ship Canal Company, and the Middleton and Tonge Cotton Mill, adorned with a painting of Mahatma Gandhi who visited the Lancashire mill during the Swadeshi movement in 1931.

Visitors to the exhibition will have an opportunity to create their own response to The Ambassadors. In an adjacent gallery space transformed to look like an artists’ studio or workshop, visitors have access to a range of craft materials and guidance to make their own mini monuments, medals and coins, or to design the embellishments for an equestrian statue, and to be displayed in the gallery space.

The Ambassadors opens on Sat 29 Apr and will run until Sun 25 Jun. For more information, visit The Lowry website.