BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.4.5//EN TZID:Europe/London X-WR-TIMEZONE:Europe/London BEGIN:VEVENT UID:11805@artinliverpool.com DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260422T110000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260703T170000 DTSTAMP:20260327T122654Z URL:https://www.artinliverpool.com/events/george-hallett-home-and-exile/ SUMMARY:John Lennon Art and Design Building: George Hallett: Home and Exile DESCRIPTION:George Hallett: Home and Exile\nA photography exhibition on Sou th African exile in Britain in the 1970s-80s\nCurated by Christine Eyene\n 23 April – 3 July 2026\nPreview: Wed 22 April 17:00 – 20:00\nERL Galle ry\, Liverpool\n---\nExhibition Research Lab (ERL) is pleased to announce George Hallett: Home and Exile an exhibition bringing together works by Ca pe Town-born South African photographer George Hallett (1942-2020) who liv ed in exile in Europe from 1970 to the mid-1990s.\nIntroduced to literatur e\, music and visual arts by South African authors Richard Rive (1931-1989 )\, James Matthews (1929-2024)\, and visual artist Peter Clarke (1929-2014 )\, Hallett developed his practice as a self-taught street photographer in Cape Town in the 1960s. His early images depict street scenes in places s uch as the District Six neighbourhood\, Black communities\, and cultural f igures and moments that were to become a major theme throughout his career . As a South African of mixed heritage\, his experience of discrimination during apartheid\, and the lack of professional opportunities\, led him to exile. He first settled in England in the early 1970s before moving to Fr ance and the Netherlands. In Europe\, and on visits to the United States a nd other parts of the world\, Hallett photographed both South African exil e and Black life with the intention of creating a visual record that resto red dignity to a people that was either absent or misrepresented in mainst ream media. Doing so\, he created an incredible photographic archive of Bl ack resistance and resilience both in the place from which he was exiled\, and the places that he called home.\nGeorge Hallett: Home and Exile focu ses on the first part of his exile\, with a selection of photographs taken in England in the 1970s and 1980s\, bearing witness to the contribution o f South African exiles to British culture and society. The exhibition is a rticulated around three major themes: visual artists that include portrait s of pioneering figures such as Gerard Sekoto\, Dumile Feni and UK-based a rtist Gavin Jantjes\; jazz musicians\, among whom Chris McGregor\, Mongezi Feza\, Dudu Pukwana\, Johnny Dyani and Louis Moholo from the famous Blue Notes (later known as Brotherhood of Breath)\; and his designs for the boo k covers of Heinneman’s African Writers Series then led by South African -born British editor James Currey. The series published major African writ ers including Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer and Booker Prize winner C hinua Achebe. This body of work is an example of how Hallett experimented with the photographic medium\, both technically\, aesthetically\, and thro ugh the performative scenes his created.\nThe exhibition concludes with Ha llett’s return to South Africa marked by his series on Nelson Mandela du ring his campaign for South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994. These images earned him a World Press Photo Award for People in the News in 1995.\nFirst presented at Clémentine de la Féronnière (Paris) in Mar ch 2025 as part of Centre Pompidou’s “Échos Paris noir” programme\, this new display\, in its expanded version\, coincides with the 50th ann iversary of the Soweto Uprising of 16 June 1976 that raised awareness on t he atrocities of the apartheid regime and brought international condemnati on.\nThe accompanying public programme includes artists and curators talks \, music\, spoken word and film screenings. It will also provide an opport unity to engage with the history of Liverpool’s anti-apartheid movement in the 1980s and its legacies today.\nCurated by Christine Eyene\, George Hallett: Home and Exile is organised by Exhibition Research Lab (ERL) wit h support from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU)’s Institute of Ar t and Technology (IAT)\, and an Enhancing Research Cultures QR Grant on th e theme of ‘Decolonial Research Culture’ developed by Eyene.\n\n---\nB IOGRAPHY\nGeorge Hallett (1942-2020)\nA Cape Town-born\, self-taught phot ographer\, George Hallett began his career in the mid-sixties as a street photographer under the guidance of Jacky Heyns\, Cape Town editor of Dru m magazine. In 1966\, when the apartheid government reclassified Distric t Six – a culturally mixed neighbourhood of Cape Town – as a White Are a\, the young photographer\, encouraged by writer and artist Peter E. Cla rke and poet James Matthews\, decided to use his camera to document it b efore the forced removals and its demolition.\nDistrict Six is the place w here Hallett encountered literature through his English teacher\, the auth or Richard Rive. It is also at Matthews’ that he was exposed to America n jazz for the first time\, as well as pioneering photographer Roy DeCara va and Harlem Renaissance legend Langston Hughes. The impact of these fir st cultural experiences is reflected in Hallett’s photographs both in So uth Africa and during his twenty-four-year exile.\nAt the end of apartheid \, Hallett returned to South Africa to document Nelson Mandela’s first p residential campaign. These images earned him a World Press Photo Award i n 1995. He was subsequently appointed official photographer for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1997 and continued to document the new South Africa in the 2000s.\nHallett has exhibited at Clémentine de la Fé ronnière\, Paris\, 2025\; Peltz Gallery\, London\, 2023\; Michaelis Galle ries\, Cape Town\, 2022\; Bozar\, Brussels\, 2018\; Bamako Encounters: Afr ican Biennale of Photography\, Bamako\, 2017\; and EVA International\, Orm ston House\, Limerick\, 2016. His work is in private and public collection s including Iziko – South African Art Gallery\; Michaelis School of Fine Art – University of Cape Town\; District Six Museum and Bo-Kaap Museum\ , Cape Town\, as well as the Library of Birmingham\, UK.\n---\nGeorge Hall ett: Home and Exile\n23 April – 3 July 2026\nPreview: 22 April 17:00 – 20:00\nBook your preview ticket here.\nExhibition Research Lab\nJohn Lenn on Art and Design Building\nDuckinfield Street\nLiverpool L3 5RD\nwww.exhi bition-research-lab.co.uk\nFor more information contact: info@exhibition-r esearch-lab.co.uk\n \;\n\nImage: George Hallett\, Exile. London\, 1983 . Courtesy GHRC. ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.artinliverpool.com/wp-content/upload s/2026/03/George-Hallett-Exhibition--scaled.jpg CATEGORIES:Exhibition Launch,Exhibitions LOCATION:John Lennon Art and Design Building\, Duckinfield Street\, Liverpo ol\, L3 5RD\, Liverpool\, United Kingdom GEO:53.405426;-2.96999 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Duckinfield Street\, Liverp ool\, L3 5RD\, Liverpool\, United Kingdom;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=John Lennon Art and Design Building:geo:53.405426,-2.96999 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20260329T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR