This pop-up exhibition is based on an installation originally staged in Colchester,Essex in 2018 by artist EVEWRIGHT, who took over and transformed S&S Caribbean Takeaway, the only Caribbean-owned working takeaway in Colchester. The idea was to create an innovative and engaging installation in an informal setting owned and controlled by the Caribbean community.
We value the importance of our community telling their stories in their own voices. The installation showed how community spaces can be repurposed to share our stories and reach people in their own settings. It challenged perceptions of where art can be experienced and enjoyed.
This installation has now been transferred as a site-specific experience at the Migration Museum’s Breathing Space Café. Caribbean Takeaway Takeover: Identities and Stories is a sound and art installation featuring limited-edition photo etchings of 12 Windrush Generation elders, along with audio interviews and sound recordings of these Windrush Pioneers.
The Caribbean takeaway is an important cultural meeting place in the Caribbean community. A home from home, the kitchen is where meals are prepared, but also where stories are exchanged and shared. Going back to African roots, the Dutch pot or cooking pot was the central place for family activity. The takeaway has just as much cultural importance as the barbershop and the hairdressing salon for black communities living and working in the UK.
