Memories Of Guyana—Boats And Nationhood—Carry Hew Locke’s Artwork

Hew Locke, ‘The Survivor,’ 2022, wood and mixed media, 7 ft. 4⅝ in. × 10 ft. 4¾ in. × 2 ft. 5½ in. (225 × 317 × 75 cm). Des Moines Art Center Permanent Collections.

Image courtesy of Hales London and New York, P·P·O·W; JSP ART PHOTOGRAPHY

Hew Locke (b. 1959) moved with his family from Edinburgh, Scotland to Georgetown, Guyana as a 6-year-old. He would spend the remainder of his childhood and early adulthood between the South American nation and London. Formative years. For the artist and the country.

In 1966, the same year Locke moved, Guyana–located on the Atlantic Ocean north of Brazil and east of Venezuela–declared independence from Britain.

“I saw a nation being born, and by that I mean literally,” Locke told Forbes.com. “A family friend was involved in the design of the coat of arms. I went with my father to the technical institute and saw this design on the wall; years later I realized it was the Guyana dollar bill. I watched this thing being born and it got me interested in how nationhood is created.”

How countries–old and new–form their sovereign cultures. Witnessing Guyana transition away from British colonial symbols to a new national visual language left a deep impression.

“Countries like America, like Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados, all have colonial history. Sometimes a colonial history in common,” Locke said. “I find that fascinating because these things shaped who we are. For example, a war in Europe in the 17th century, people would think, ‘What’s that got to do with me?’ That would have massive ramifications across the globe. Land would move from one country to another country, languages change, place names change. Going back to Guyana, you can drive along the road from one village, which would be a former estate plantation, it would be a Dutch name, then a French name, and an English name.”

Memories of Guyana, budding nationhood, colonialism, the colonial reach of Britain, migration, the sea, these are the ideas Locke would carry into his art career. A career being celebrated at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, CT during “Hew Locke: Passages,” a comprehensive survey of his eclectic use of diverse media, including drawing, photography, and sculpture. On view through January 11, 2026, the presentation features nearly 50 works spanning more than three decades from his earliest charcoal drawings to recent installations made with found and ready-made objects, such as beads, sequins, and toys.

Hew Locke, ‘Kingdom of Greece,’ 2012, from the series Share, acrylic on paper share certificate, 16 × 11½ in. (40.5 × 29.3 cm). Private collection.

Hew Locke

“I like things that have got a history to it,” Locke explained of his proclivity for incorporating found objects into his artwork. Had he not chosen art, he would have liked to become a historian or archeologist. “I like taking something which has a history to it and working with that into an artwork, or taking something which has a has a different purpose, something made for something else, and transforming it, and making it into something magical. I like people being able to see exactly what I’ve done.”

Another extraordinary coincidence of historical timing would shape Locke’s artmaking in 2008. Again, his life intersected with global history. He was in New York helping with the installation of his work for the opening show at the Museum of Arts and Design.

Fall of 2008.

New York.

“After two days, I wake up one morning, my show is installed, everything’s good, I wake up and Lehman Brothers are gone,” Locke remembers.

Locke was in Manhattan as the chickens came home to roost for the greedy financiers and bankers whose corruption brought down the global economy. The art world–dependent as it is on wealth–was headed for shambles. Locke wondered what would he do?

Artists always come up with an answer.

“When the whole financial system is collapsing, I’m going to lean into that and start investing in dead companies. I started buying dead bonds,” Locke said.

Locke’s reworked historic share certificates are direct interventions into the very documents that initiated modern global market capitalism.

“I bought a lot of bonds issued to the Chinese Imperial Court and I started working on top of that stories about how things have changed,” Locke explained. “The Chinese bonds, I cover them up with a map of Africa; the fact that in 1898 when this bond was issued, and you told somebody from the Chinese court, in 100 years’ time, you guys are going to be in this continent of Africa in a big way, a member of the court would not believe that. It’s about shifts and changes in fortune.”

Boats

Visitor to Yale Center for British Art entrance court with ‘The Survivor,’ ‘The Relic,’ and ‘Desire’ by Hew Locke.

Michael Ipsen

The “Passages” exhibition showcases a site-specific installation of Locke’s acclaimed ship sculptures. For the duration of the show, three of his multi-colored ships—enduring motifs to connectivity and migration—will be suspended in the entrance court of the museum’s landmark Louis I. Kahn building.

“The name Guyana, in English translation, it means land of many waters,” Locke said. “To get anywhere as a kid, before bridges were built, we would have to go by ferry, go by boat. This is a common thing.”

The artist would come to recognize how boats are never simply boats.

“It’s more than just a boat. It’s a massively symbolic thing,” Locke explained. “When I was a kid, I grew up next to the sea wall–Guyana has a sea wall along its coast because it’s on average about a meter below sea level–we would sit on the sea wall as kids and watch boats coming as dots over the horizon and arriving slowly and then heading out. I said, ‘Where are you going?’ And maybe, ‘Can you take me? I’d like an adventure.’”

From youth in Guyana to adulthood in London where he’s lived since the late 80s, boats, ships, the ocean, have been a constant in Locke’s life. Same as how they’ve been a constant in the short history of the nation of Guyana and the long history of the nation of Britain. A constant in global commerce, colonialism, warfare, leisure.

Viking funerary ships and the sailing vessels transporting Europeans around the world to enslave it. Trafalgar and Titanic. The fishing boats that wiped out the whales and cod. Ugly container ships and beautiful cruise ships–ugly in their own way.

Locke has sculpted boats for many years, a therapy in a way.

“If I hadn’t made a boat sculpture for a few years, I would feel disconnected and distracted. It’s like part of my identity,” he said.

Boats as a fixture in Locke’s life. In his visual memory, same as they are a fixture in literature. The “Odyssey,” “Treasure Island,” “Robinson Crusoe,” “Moby Dick.”

A fixture in cinema.

“One thing which was really influential on me, and probably a lot of people, that film ‘Apocalypse Now’ and that boat going up river,” Locke explained. “There’s something about that, the film is garbage, and I’m not going to comment on the film, but that idea of the boat going up river, it has an impact on me.”

Boats are work. Fishing boats. Boats are playgrounds. Yachts. Boats are torture. The Middle Passage.

Boats are Hew Locke.

“What is important about these boats is that there’s nobody on it,” Locke explained of his boat sculptures. “The person on the boat is you and your imagination and your mind. You’re taking this journey.”