Selected Works

Group show resulting from a commission responding to MIGRANT; a British poetry journal circulated between 1958 - 60. Instigated by Division of Labour Gallery (London) and Museum of Worcester. Artists David Blackmore, Sonia Boyce & Mark S Gubb.

Blackmore’s anthology-like works are of fragments of his exploration of Migrant Press and its locations. Blackmore’s print documents an action exploring the artist’s own complex national identity growing up in both England and Republic of Ireland, as well as the severance of our identity as European citizens. The tattooed MIGRANT makes a poignant statement, referencing how people seen as undesirable or out of place have been literally and metaphorically labelled throughout history.

Pear trees are referred to as boundary markers in the Doomsday book. The black pear is an emblem of Worcester and this inspired Blackmore to research British fruit farming. He explores how growing specific varieties of pears requires parts of one species to be grafted on to another and how, through this migration, parent plants grow offspring entirely different to themselves.

With assistance from Michael Hampton, Dilantha Dissanayake, Ashling Smith, Ryan Haslam and Vivi.

Migrant, Division of Labour (London, UK) & The HIVE (Worcester, UK)

David Blackmore, Sonia Boyce and Mark S Gubb. Curated by Emalee Beddoes and Research by Michael Hampton

Hampton, M,. 2017, Migrant Press (Revisited), Pitt Projects/Division of Labour, Worcester

‘Around the World in Five Art Cities: MIGRANT Press Re-visited’ In Elephant Magazine, September 2017, Part II, London, p. 31.