MICHAEL ARMITAGE (b. 1984)
Dream and Refuge 2020
Seven colour lithograph on Somerset warm white velvet 400gsm paper
48.8 x 23.5 cm
Edition 82 of 250
Dream and Refuge was released in campaign by the artist and White Cube to raise funds for three Kenyan charities, whose activities have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The lithograph shows a woman asleep, wrapped in a printed cloth, and was created with the displaced and the homeless in mind. Rather than presenting the woman as an object of pity, however, Michael Armitage shows her as an individual with a rich interior world, represented by the imagery crowding the outside of the picture space. This dreamscape includes falling figures and the star found on the prow of a sailing dhow that bestows good luck on those who travel, while in the print of her wrap we find the hornbill from a creation myth associated with motherhood, loss and creation
Provenance
White Cube, London, where purchased October 2020.
Exhibited
Welbeck, Harley Gallery, A Voyage of Discovery, February-May 2022.
Bristol, Arnolfini Arts, Dream and Refuge, November 2023 - January 2024.