BLKBRD Collective is a network of artists, from various disciplines, based in South London. They seek to celebrate the stories and experiences of marginalised communities within the UK through public art installations.
The Collective, formed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, create work with a primary focus on minority communities disproportionately affected by the pandemic, while exploring traditionally under-represented legacies of migration to the UK. From the transatlantic slave trade to the contemporary refugee crisis; the Windrush scandal to the disproportionate BAME death toll for COVID-19. They began by painting murals during the government allocated hour of exercise, and have since created a series of over twenty self-funded murals across London.
BLKBRD Collective are Counterpoints’ commissioned artists, as part of ‘To love, care, breathe… as acts of justice’ commissioning project. As part of the commission, for Refugee Week 2021, the Collective produced a touring-mural titled A departure with no return. The mural, inspired by the experience of migrants, explores the danger, desire and desperation associated with traversing boundaries. Made during the COVID-19 pandemic, in response to the ongoing refugee crisis, the captivating mural highlights the struggle, conviction, and hope that is intrinsic to the reality of migrants. BLKBRD Collective aim to shift the normative perception of ‘migration’ as a politically contentious topic, to instead a celebration of movement and the struggles associated with it.
BLKBRD Collective present the underrepresented – the experience of migration and movement through the hardships, the imagination and the spirituality that a migrant’s journey entails . The Collective seek to honour the sacrifices of migrants getting to Britain today and throughout time. With a strong belief that art and community are inseparable, their artwork effectively destabilises the traditional imagery of home as a geographical concept. Voicing the voiceless, BLKBRD Collective portray instead the notion of home as a feeling, a memory, a dream.
Other recent work includes Bearers of Home at The Museum of Home and Ghost Meridian residency at the The Royal Museum Greenwich. In later part of 2021 the Collective collaborated with the artist Dana Olărescu on Stories from the ‘Roads’ of Empire, a partnership project between London South Bank University and Counterpoints Arts for ‘Being Human’ Festival 2021.
Image (c) BLKBRD Collective
