Tavares Strachan’s exhibition There is Light Somewhere at the Hayward Gallery in London is a profound exploration of Black history and culture, showcased through a diverse array of mediums including mixed media paintings, tapestry, ceramics, installations, sound and light. Bahamian-born Strachan’s practice is deeply rooted in uncovering and celebrating the overlooked contributions of Black individuals across global politics, science and culture.

The exhibition opens with Strachan's series of Invisibility Paintings, which overlay images and text to explore the complex identities formed by postcolonial histories. Notable works include the diptych Every Tongue Shall Confess (2019), which juxtaposes portraits of Elizabeth II and Haile Selassie I, highlighting a moment when the English queen “allegedly” (per the exhibition text) bowed before the Ethiopian emperor. This act symbolises an inversion of historical hierarchies and challenges the monopolised narratives of colonial powers. Strachan’s Double Consciousness (2023) combines the theories of American historian W.E.B. Du Bois with an image of the black NASA scientist Annie Easley, reflecting on a duality of African American experiences within a racist society. A striking mohair tapestry, Kojo (2022), depicts Benin-born colonial critic Kojo Houénou, incorporating rich iconographic elements such as a lion, basketball hoops, text and a postage stamp to denote his royal ancestry. This tapestry exemplifies Strachan's dedication to providing alternative cultural narratives in a globalised world in which migration brings diverse communities side by side but knowledge remains shadowed by race politics

In addition to celebrating well-known figures like singer Nina Simone, American writer and civil rights activists James Baldwin and Harriet Tubman, gay rights activist Marsha Johnson and dub producer King Tubby, Strachan also sheds light on lesser-known stories. His works Robert Henry Lawrence Jr (2018) and Robert (2018), a wall text and a suspended arched figure respectively, both made with neon LED lights, pay tribute to the African American astronaut who died in a training accident and the subsequent hate mail received by his family. Strachan also memorialises Henrietta Lacks, whose illegally harvested cancer cells have been pivotal in medical research, through a translucent skeletal figure suspended in an acrylic box.

The Encyclopaedia of Invisibility (2018) is a significant piece in the exhibition, containing 17,000 entries of overlooked persons, animals, places, objects and artworks. This ongoing research is styled after the Encyclopaedia Britannica but is presented as a sculpture in a vitrine, with framed pages on the surrounding walls. These pages are largely illegible, the text erased or obscured, symbolising the frustration of inaccessible knowledge.

In his quest for knowledge and as a condition of growing up on an island dreaming of lands far and wide, the artist is a keen explorer, having made expeditions to the North Pole. He trained as a cosmonaut at the Yuri Gagarin Centre in Moscow, Russia, and in 2008 established the Bahamas Aerospace and Sea Exploration Centre (B.A.S.E.C.). To commemorate Henry Lawrence Jr., Strachan supports the construction and launch of rockets made entirely from locally sourced materials - glass from beach sand and fuel from sugarcane. A rocket and photo documents of the launch are on view in the exhibition. Lesser-known African American polar explorer Matthew Henson who made several expeditions in his lifetime and reached the North Pole in 1909 is immortalised in a composite pixelated portrait Matthew Henson (2012) of diverse minuscule images from popular culture, natural history, tribal artefacts and numerical codes.

The exhibition includes a new commission, Intergalactic Palace (2024), a nine-metre wide thatched hut inspired by the artist's travels to Uganda's ancient Kingdom of Buganda. This structure contains a sound and light installation titled Sonic Encyclopedia, informed by the artist's interests in the origins of Black music. It is a disconcerting meeting of the past and the present, the walls of a traditional hut adorned with flashing light fixtures and a central DJ console. On the Hayward’s sculpture terrace, set within an elevated pool of water, Strachan presents a large-scale sculpture of the S.S. Yarmouth, the flagship of the Black Star Line, the shipping company founded in 1919 by Jamaican social activist Marcus Garvey to facilitate trade and travel between the United States, the Caribbean and Africa.

Through this multifaceted exhibition, Strachan vividly illuminates key questions of cultural visibility and celebrates unsung explorers and cultural trailblazers, inviting audiences to engage with histories that have been hidden by bias. His work underscores the importance of telling these ‘lost stories’ and honouring the contributions of those who have been historically marginalised.

Tavares Strachan: There Is Light Somewhere is on view at the Hayward Gallery in London until September 1, 2024.