Amid a calming soundtrack of lapping waves and cooing birds, workers in brightly coloured paintings share glances that say: ‘What the hell are we doing here?’ But isn’t there more to not belonging than this show suggests?
Home comforts aren’t always all that comfortable. Here at the Venice Biennale, Lubaina Himid paints an awkward, tense, uncomfortable portrait of our damp old home nation. Her installation of monumental paintings and a wall of painted oars at the British pavilion is full of tailors and cooks and architects, the people who shape the country, keeping it fed, clothed and sheltered.
An audio piece burbles through the space with the sound of bucolic country life: seagulls, rigging slapping on masts, bird calls and buzzing flies. How lovely Great Britain is, how welcoming and kind and accepting.
