Romani artist Delaine Le Bas to exhibit at the White House, Dagenham
Create London has commissioned artist and Turner Prize nominee Delaine Le Bas to create a new installation exploring the hidden histories and resistance of Roma & Traveller communities. The new exhibition takes place at The White House on the Becontree Estate in Dagenham, East London.
Delaine Le Bas said: “As I have been returning to Dagenham – walking its streets and visiting archives – I have explored my feelings as a newcomer to the borough. The experience of being a stranger – feeling othered and unmoored – is prevalent in the Roma & Traveller communities. I have often felt like a Stranger in Silver Walking on Air.”
Through textiles, sculptural objects and glasswork that form an immersive installation, Delaine Le Bas: Stranger in Silver Walking on Air explores the hidden histories and the artist’s own lived experiences of Roma & Traveller communities. Moving through the house, the artworks reveal glimpses of these often misunderstood and maligned narratives, transforming The White House into a dreamlike space of storytelling, resilience and creativity.
Entering the house, the walls are swathed in painted calico artworks featuring ‘The Stranger in Silver, Walking on Air’ – a profile silhouette of a hooded woman in a silver dress and heels. The Stranger is a figure that repeats throughout the house, every corner of which is activated and infused with elements that reflect the richness, complexity and resilience of Roma & Traveller life whilst investigating conceptions and the materiality of the domestic space.
Painted fabrics and printed silks layer over one another, colourful glass works catch the light, while intimate textiles echo the presence of those who have passed through before. In the kitchen, artist-designed ceramics invite visitors to sit, share and reflect, while a curated library offers deeper insight into the history and struggles of these nomadic and persecuted communities.
Outside in the garden, a playful yet poignant encampment of ‘rubbish doll’ figures – a motif Le Bas has explored for over two decades – occupies the front lawn. These eerie, makeshift dolls, with their plastic-like faces and garbage-bag bodies, serve as a sharp, ironic reminder of societal attitudes toward dispossession and belonging.
Marie Bak Mortensen, Director of Create London, said: “We are incredibly fortunate to have Delaine Le Bas’s work transform The White House in a way never experienced before in our residency history. By fostering meaningful connections and creating artworks that reflect and amplify the narratives of Roma & Traveller communities, we hope the exhibition will counter stereotypical conceptions, exploring the impact of the diaspora experience by asking what has been displaced, dismissed, withheld or thrust onto Roma communities as a result of historical discrimination. We are excited by how the installation re-examines and plays with the architecture of the domestic spaces of The White House, testing ideas around the liveable museum, home-as-artwork and studio-as-domestic space while offering new ways to engage audiences with contemporary visual art.”
Le Bas has been artist-in-residence at The White House over the course of a six-month period. During this time, Create London has facilitated an engagement process of community conversations with Roma & Traveller community workers, Barking & Dagenham’s local Roma residents, visiting artists and curators. Approximately 4.5% of the UK's Roma & Traveller population are located in East London, between Tower Hamlets, Newham, and Barking & Dagenham. Le Bas’ commitment to Roma & Traveller creativity highlights the plight of a community that faces significant social injustice in the UK, with racist sentiments and exclusion from broader society impacting education levels, socio-economic status and life expectancy. In this exhibition, Create London is consulting with a range of advocacy and community groups to reach Roma & Traveller communities, including Roma Support Group, London Gypsies & Travellers, Gypsies & Travellers Essex, Traveller Movement and Romano Lav.
Delaine Le Bas: Stranger in Silver Walking on Air builds on a lifetime of work for Le Bas. The English-Romani artist has long championed Roma and Traveller creativity with work across Europe that includes presence at the 52nd and 58th Venice Biennales, co-curating the first Roma Biennial in 2018 and exhibitions in Vienna, Berlin and Athens. This commission is part of a recent wave of attention in the UK, following on from the artist’s recognition on the Turner Prize 2024 shortlist and a significant exhibition at Tramway in Glasgow.
A series of readings, performances and community events welcome audiences to ‘stop’ at the house, creating a space of dialogue, rest and connection. This reflects the sentiment of ‘Atchin Tan’; a Romany phrase that translates as ‘stopping place’.
Find out more: createlondon.org
Events programme: The White House Eventbrite
TT News/Create London press release
(Photography by Eszter Halasi)