exchange of letters

Eight letters to Claudette (2021)

Eight letters to Claudette (2021)

Journal of Contemporary Painting Volume 10 Numbers 1&2, published online

Recently I came across an exchange of eight letters between artists Claudette Johnson and Lubaina Himid, written in 2021. In these letters, they not only share their current art practices and struggles in the studio, but also their experiences as African Diasporans, offering a glimpse of their daily lives and the depth of their friendship.

I particularly drawn to Letter 2 and 3, when Johnson brings up the association between the use of colours and cultural heritage. She desires to challenge what she calls the “hierarchy of colour” (Johnson and Himid, 2024, p.46). In response, Himid askes a stirring question: “As African Diasporan painters, do we carry a longing for the intense light of the equator and then combine it with the slow fading evenings of the northern hemisphere?” (idem, p.47)

Their open-ended reflections resonate with me. I believe artists often, even unconsciously incopporate colours that speak their identities. For instance, Ellie Perry, the winner of the Tate Etc. Writing Prize, commented on Himid’s painting Slice Ten Lemons (2015/2022), “A moment of every picture, in luminous slashes of blue, seems to be painted in memoriam of the suffering endured by enslaved people at sea.” (Perry, 2022). Her interpretation highlights how colour can hold memory and meaning in many circumstances.

Reading Johnson and Himid’s letters moves me. I feel emotional as I echo with their context and think I was standing between them, listening to their conversation. I guess this sense of closeness is what makes letters fascinating. The unique emotional power of letters is a form of communication we often neglect in today’s world of digital communication. Their exchange of letters has inspired me to explore letter writing as a personal and expressive format in my own practice. I am planning to invite GaGa Jiarui Yang, who is interested in exploring feminist theories, to do a similar form of letter exchange, hopefully we would spark some interesting conversations.

Reference:

Johnson, C. and Himid, L. (2024) ‘Eight letters to Claudette (2021)’, Journal of Contemporary Painting, 10(1), pp. 45–55. doi:10.1386/jcp_00064_1.

Perry, E. (2022) Tate etc.. writing prize – tate etc, Tate. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/tate-etc/issue-56-autumn-2022/tate-etc-writing-prize (Accessed: 20 May 2025).