Finding My Blue Sky

'Finding My Blue Sky' is an exhibition conceived as a constellation, at once epic and polyglot, personal and searchingly political. Curated by Dr. Omar Kholeif, this ambitious group show at Lisson Gallery features over twenty artists from diverse nationalities and eras, including several making their London debut, alongside twelve new commissions. The show elides biographical and cultural difference in overlapping personal narratives: it is at one level a self-reflexive statement, akin to a diary or memoir, evolving out of Kholeif’s formative interactions and new encounters with artists, and his own diasporic heritage (as the son of Egyptian and Sudanese parents). At another, it invites viewers to participate in the creation of meaning – to dream of their own aesthetic politics. Accordingly, the parallel title in Arabic has a distinct inflection: “What is the World that you Dream of?” 

Spanning both London spaces, as well as its courtyards, windows, and adjacent street corners, 'Finding My Blue Sky' builds into a chorus of voices and histories. Its starting point was a series of conversations between Kholeif and Lubaina Himid (b. Zanzibar, 1954), in which Himid recounted her childhood in 1960s England: daily journeys to school by bus, and the experience of accompanying her mother, a textile designer,to colonial ‘independence’ ceremonies at the embassies of African nations. On the walls outside 27 Bell Street is a set of murals by Himid – emblematic enlargements of her Freedom Kanga paintings, inspired by East African kanga garments. In one mural, the phrase “There could be an endless ocean” appears beneath a pair of crimson lungs. The text, also a textile of a kind, has an aptly double resonance, channeling the show’s intimation of infinitude – its appeal to visitors’ boundless imaginations – while voicing a darker hypothesis concerning the climate emergency.