Alvaro Barrington Notting Hill Carnival Commission 2025
Invested in exploring how visual art can participate in and be part of a larger conversation about culture, Alvaro Barrington has been collaborating with Notting Hill Carnival annually since 2019. This year the artist will once again cover the Mangrove Sound Truck and Mangrove Steelband Performance Float, which parade along the Carnival route, with two new series of paintings.
Expanding on the paintings first exhibited during Barrington's 2024 solo exhibition Grace at Tate Britain, the paintings that dress the Mangrove Sound Truck depict a variety of masquerade characters – including the Moko Jumbie, Blue Devil (originating from Trinidad and Tobago) and Jab Jab (Grenada) – and portray the participants of Notting Hill Carnival. Burlap sacks – frequently used for trade of cocoa and coffee, among other goods – have been stitched together and surround each portrait, echoing a frame. They have been further embellished with colourful abstract shapes sewn on top in a variety of stitching techniques. The pieces were inspired by African Kuba textiles – fabrics woven from palm leaf fibres and collectively decorated with geometrical shapes, stitched or embroidered onto the long cloths. Kuba cloths have been used as ceremonial attire and functioned as currency in the Kuba Kingdom of Central Africa from the seventeenth century. The shapes on Barrington’s works have been also inspired by the colourful collages of Henri Matisse, specifically his 1947 Jazz series, and bear a resemblance to dancing bodies and energetic movements. This body of work also references collaborative quilt-making techniques – collaging, superimposing and stitching different elements together – and the Caribbean history of artistic expression through fabric and sewing.
Emelda's Junction, the performance arm of Barrington's practice, will programme the Powis Square stage at Notting Hill Carnival, where Barrington will create an additional site-specific installation on the stage. The two-day programme will run on Sunday, August 24th, and Monday, August 25th, from 12pm to 7pm, and will bring together a curated selection of local and international musicians and DJs including Aswad, Cooyah, Freezy, Dawn Penn, Pudaz, Ridge, Sister Nancy, Tallpree, Carrol Thompson, Top Cat and more
