ODE TO DAVID LAMMY

Part of the solo exhibition, Othered in a region that has been historically Othered, Focal Point Gallery, 26 Jun -18 Sept 2022 and shortlisted for the Freelands Award 2021

Large text-based black neon sculpture
Dimensions: 9000 x 300 mm
Edition of 1 + 1AP

Lammy’s quotation is succinct, direct, and so freighted - Adrian Searle, The Guardian

Tell the home secretary! - Jonathan Jones, The Guardian

In 2018, the now shadow foreign secretary made a speech in response to the Windrush scandal. 'I am here because you are there', echoed David Lammy, words which have now inspired not only Elsa James's artwork - opening a new exhibition at Gagosian Rites of Passage - but the exhibition's overarching theme as well - Christina Donoghue, SHOWstudio

The neon cites the words I AM HERE BECAUSE YOU WERE THERE—a universal declaration for many Black people in the African diaspora, lifted from an impassioned speech by the Member of Parliament in 2018 responding to the Windrush scandal, in which British subjects—many of whom had arrived in Britain from Caribbean nations decades earlier—were wrongly detained or threatened with deportation.