WindFall RushOut

Description

11 May 2018

WindFall > WindRush > FallOut > RushOut

This is the history that I don’t think I fully grasped until I did this painting. The Mother England I was taught to see as a distant but benevolent parent when I lived in Trinidad unveiled herself when I lived here and began doing the research for this painting.

The WINDFALL of cheap black and brown bodies from a Commonwealth that does not share the common wealth was welcome when Mother England needed cheap expendable labour.

With the wind at their backs to hasten their contributions to rebuilding the Mother, they were rushed here on the WINDRUSH and so many other. Ironically repeating many other ship journeys in much more horrific conditions centuries before.

Of course, Mother didn’t tell the other children in the house that family was coming to stay. And they were family, because when you’re a colony, you are part of the imperial whole. They were British citizens invited here to come help Mother England regroup post-war. So then came the FALLOUT. The resentment, the racism, the backlash and resistance to people who came to help but were never welcomed.

After a while, the ‘immigration’ argument became too much so Mother England decided to do something about it just to have some peace and quiet in the house. After several generations spent their lives adding to the prosperity of this country, she orchestrated the RUSHOUT. Go back home, get out, and if you don’t go we’ll throw you out. Cue the ‘hostile environment’ that saw then shipped off in the dead of night like they were so many centuries ago.

And the great irony of all this is that despite using them up and spitting them out, there are still ads in Jamaica for Earn Learn Return schemes calling Jamaican nurses to come work in the UK. No, this is no benevolent but emotionally distant mother, this is a foster mother who takes in as many children as she can so she can get more money.

My children were born here. The UK is my home now and there are many beautiful wonderful things about this country and its people. Denying the shared history we have and pretending it didn’t happen and (in different forms) still is happening, is what dishonours our deep long standing connection.

The original write up for this painting was lost in the transfer of the website. This is an updated discussion of the painting which I created with help from my (then) 7 year old son. If the old write up resurfaces in archived files (fingers crossed) I will post it below with the original date.