“For English to see”

From Portuguese “Para inglês ver”, something superficial done for the purpose of appearance.

On the second floor of the The Africa Centre, south of the Thames, in a room painted navy blue, the temporal balance of past, present and future that is the work of René Tavares lives on (until 28 October). Portraits for English to see marks his first solo exhibition in the UK.

In the contrast of white clothes on black skin and black soil, eyes shine in the dark, assuring us “I’m here”. Textured, earth-like, expressive, alive, the brushstrokes still seem to be moving, they promise inertia, but they seem to move every time you turn your back.

In the non-movement of the portrait, in the assimilation of time, background and forefront are mixed, they dissipate among nature, the blurred outlines tell us that there is little to separate them, that this space is theirs, that they are one and the other. 

Mundane scenes constructed, inspired by the archives, when labourers were forced to pose in white clothes in order to mark their existence without will. Tavares subverts these scenes by the act of painting them himself, creating a safe space that generates authorship and identity for those portrayed, as if emancipated from the space in which they find themselves, under a new gaze that reimagines the “I” in social space, a space not commanded but acquired.

The two series Portraits for English to see and Cotton people reloaded were born out of a sense of belonging and the importance of re-signification. A portrait doesn’t always imply looking directly at the viewer, but these figures look at us with certainty and pride, asking to be seen.

Among the figures, the presence of the female figure is predominant, represented alone or prevailing among group portraits. Two of the paintings mention the word grandmother, divided between memories and treasures, simile to divine images and altars, the painting brings together objects thought to be of affection or personification. This insertion into the divine, and portraiture in general, are important processes in the reconditioning of icons from the Western canon. The image of these women is exalted both on a personal level for the artist, in the presence of family members, and for the general public through simple representation.

Despite various theories, the most popular suggests that the expression “for English to see” originated in Brazil in the 19th century when England pressurised the implementation of measures to combat slavery. Despite the implementation of the Feijó Law, which banned imports, trafficking and internal slave labour continued, and the measure was considered a veil to keep up appearances.

In subversion, white clothes appear as an element of provocation and reinvention, a veil to history and a renewed affirmation. The exhibition suggests a freedom and plurality of racial and cultural identity, continually constructed with attention to the past, the future and the present. Tavares transcribes to this space, in title as in concept, the idea that black culture is essentially hybrid, a product of centuries of exchange, slavery and displacement across the Atlantic, a theory described by Gilroy in his book The Black Atlantic. 

For English to see what comes from the Lusophone world.