1972 | "For Oluwale"

Exhibitions

The first iteration of For Oluwale (1972-75) consists of four panels of pamphlets, newsletter, and newspaper clippings in a collaged format about the court case centred around the only photo of Oluwale: his mugshot.

As well as encapsulating the tragedy of David Oluwale’s death, the piece marked a politicised shift in Rasheed Araeen’s practice. He had previously created mostly abstract art but For Oluwale had a clearly political message. As Sonia Boyce says ‘The newspaper accounts sit alongside other reports of racist abuse by the police and “anti-imperialist” campaigns’ (Boyce, 2019). This shift in practice highlights the significance of Oluwale’s story.

For Oluwale II included two additional panels providing further information about Oluwale as well as a letter of complaint from someone who objected to the original version of the work. The revised piece was shown as part of the ‘Other Story’ exhibition curated by Rasheed Araeen. It was shown at galleries around the country, including the Hayward Gallery in London (29 November 1989 - 4 February 1990), Wolverhampton Art Gallery (10 March - 22 April 1990) and Manchester City Art Gallery (5 May - 10 June 1990).

More recently, the artwork was display at The Tetley in Leeds to commemorate the 50th anniversary of David Oluwale’s death. It has also been shown at the Baltic gallery in Gateshead and the Grosvenor Gallery in London.

Who is Rasheed Araeen?

Rasheed Araeen was born in Karachi in 1935. He trained as a civil engineer but began working as an artist after moving to London in 1964. With no formal training, Araeen began producing sculptures influenced by Minimalism and his engineering degree. His early sculptures Chakras (1969-1970) and Zero to Infinity (1968-2004) were breath-taking pieces built from cubes, lattices and discs.

He joined the London Black Panthers and became a leading member of the Black Arts Movement in the 1970s. He was one of the main advocates for voices of artists of African, Latin American, and Asian origins to be represented in British cultural institutions (Shaked, 2018).

Araeen’s activism was sparked by his own experience of migration. Interviewed about his move to London, Araeen has said: ‘When I arrived in London in 1964, racism was everywhere. It was spirited, overt, and it was legal … I arrived, and had to find myself a place to live, everywhere I went, I was received with the constant signs of “No Blacks, No Coloureds”’ (Araeen quoted in Aikens, 2018).

Political Art

Araeen started work on For Oluwale after reading about the trial of Geoffrey Ellerker and Kenneth Kitching in a newspaper. He explained: ‘I was shocked when I read how Oluwale was treated by the police and how it led to his death in Leeds. So, on that day, when I read about his death, I decided I would make a work dedicated to him.’ (Araeen quoted in Aikens, 2018).

The work was added to throughout the period 1972-75 and revised in 1988. Max Farrar gives more context in this video produced for the exhibition at the Tetley in 2019.