These beautifully rendered figures form part of Naming the Money, an immersive installation by the British artist Lubaina Himid, whose work centres on ideas of cultural history and the reclaiming of identities. One hundred of these life-size, cut-out protagonists make up the powerful piece, which “reveals the hidden history of black slaves and servants”. “Each cut-out has a real name, each one is able to say who they actually are [via an accompanying soundtrack and texts],” Himid’s website explains, “but each one lives with their new name and their new unpaid occupation [shoemaker, musician, artist etc.] attempting somehow to reconcile the two.”
