HS Projects are delighted to present Interchange Junctions, a group exhibition of internationally established and emerging artists examining ideas of colonialism, post colonialism, slavery, cultural exchange and trade. The exhibition examines contested cultural and political histories which carry special resonance at Howick Place, named after Viscount Howick - later 2nd Earl Grey - one of the main architects of the Reform Act 1832, Catholic emancipation and the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.

Interchange Junctions follows on from Yinka Shonibare’s newly commissioned permanent Wind Sculpture, just off Howick Place, which has become an integral part of Victoria’s identity as a vibrant new cultural quarter. Wind Sculpture is a site specific response to the history of the area and continues Shonibare’s focus on themes of colonialism, trade, and race, employing the artist’s signature use of batik Dutch wax fabric designs which have become synonymous with African identity.

The artists in the exhibition have been invited to create a dialogue with Yinka Shonibare’s Wind Sculpture, with the multi-cultural aspect of the exhibition paying homage to the enlightened actions carried out in the name of Howick. Through a range of media from film, animation, sculpture, collage, photography, drawing, painting and performance, the artists seek to explore cultural frameworks and issues of identity and how we negotiate these through the historical legacy of our collective past and our ever evolving multi-cultural global world.

Interchange Junctions offers the opportunity to experience a number of new works and site specific commissions as well as works that have not been shown in London before. Ideas of mobility, memory and transmission, migration, trade and colonial struggle are explored along with notions of social awareness and engagement. Misinterpretation and misplacement of accepted norms from one culture to another are part of a discourse on friction between cultures, identity and cultural belonging. Notions of power, success and failure run through the exhibition challenging long held assumptions.

During the open day of Saturday 17th May, there will also be a rap performance by David Blandy and Larry Achiampong who under the alias ‘Biters’, will examine the possibility for truthful, authentic experience via the popular cultures that have influenced them. They will investigate what identity might mean in the post-colonial and post-mass media age by crate-digging through history, recycling already-sampled beats and reciting stolen rhymes.

Exhibition has been made possible by Invesco Real Estate (IRE) and Terrace Hill, the joint developer behind the landmark building with Doughty Hanson.

Participating artists: Faisal Abdu’Allah, Larry Achiampong, Faig Ahmed, Alice Anderson, Shiraz Bayjoo, David Blandy, Phoebe Boswell, Jessie Brennan, Fiona Curran, Corinne Felgate, Rose Finn-Kelcey, Romuald Hazoumè, Rob Kesseler, Alex Lawler, Alan Magee, Jade Montserrat, Alida Rodrigues, Zineb Sedira, Shahzia Sikander, Yinka Shonibare MBE, Michelle Ussher, Andy Wicks and BA(Hons) Ceramic Design Central Saint Martins students (Lucy Anderson, Sarah Christie, Yung Cheuk Chung, Srabani Ghosh, Ziynet Hidiroglu, Ellis Hooson, Sun-a Kim, Friedrich Ly Thien Co, Jessica Martin, David McQuire, Megan Niell, Niamh Philips, Jose Salgrado De Lacerda, Harriet Sennett, Sandra Stallard, Akville Zukauskaite).