Tate puts young artists’ works on billboards across London

Photographs by 30 young artists celebrating African community and culture are now on display on billboards across north, south and east London.

The photographers responded to a Tate Collective callout for 16 to 24-year-olds to submit images responding to Tate Modern’s current exhibition, A World in Common.

One of the billboards is located at the Old Vic (Image: Joe Humphrys)

Applicants were encouraged to share images which represent their individual interpretation of contemporary African photography and which respond to the exhibition’s themes of inherited tradition, family portraits and imagined futures.

From the submitted works, 30 were chosen by a panel which included photographer Serena Brown, artist Koby Martin, Tate curator Jess Baxter and Tate’s Head of Design, Soraya Chumroo. 

Tate Collective is a worldwide free-to join membership initiative that aims to engage young people with the arts.

Artist Alicia Quayson with her photograph Freedom (Uhuru) in Finsbury Park (Image: Madeleine Buddo)

Running until December 4, 2023, the billboards are located in Haringey, Lambeth, Southwark and Tower Hamlets. Works have been taken on film and digital cameras, as well as on mobile phones.

Located near Finsbury Park Tube station, 126 Peckham Hill Street, Peckham High Street, Union Street which is also in Southwark, and The Old Vic theatre, images depict nostalgic scenes, pay homage to unique cultural traditions and re-imaging images of the past.

Works also include bold compositions influenced by traditional African studio photography, stylised self-portraits and scenes of rural or urban life.

Conveying the artists’ personal experiences of community and culture in Africa and the diaspora, images show groups of family and friends dancing, swimming, and working together.

Another of the billboards is at Peckham Hill Street (Image: Joe Humphrys)

This includes a photograph by Amy Ibukunoluwa Lewis, a 19-year-olf from Buckinghamshire, The image documents a joyful Nigerian wedding in an intimate photo she describes as “encapsulating the natural essence of Nigerian joy and pride, which should be lived and celebrated”.

Muorada Ibrahim’s submitted work reflects on celebrating Eid al-Adha on a trip to Ejisu in Ghana, her mother’s hometown, where she was “introduced to a part of her [mother] that existed before [she] was born”, whereas Gabin Congolo, 24 from London looked to the Brecon Beacons in Wales to depict Congolese refugees building a new home “showing togetherness, freedom & the richness of culture.”

Billboards will remain in situ in Haringey, Lambeth, Southwark and Tower Hamlets until December 3.