Take a Little Trip is a series of photo-based gel transfers of iconic people who have passed on and who have inspired me and many with their commitment to expressing themselves as who they are – complex human beings – through their talent, activism and study. Each piece consists of an image developed from multiple frames of a video of the subject in conversation about their practice and life. Depicting each subject as such exposes the unfixable nature of their being and their tendency towards movement – geographically and imaginatively – while expressing themselves in ways that question perceived notions of monolithic Black communities.

The people depicted in Take a Little Trip include: musicians Minnie Riperton, Nina Simone and Salome Bey, writers Toni Morrison and Frantz Fanon, artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, performer Josephine Baker, and journalist and community activist Claudia Jones, founder of Notting Hill Caribbean Carnival and Britain’s West Indian Gazette. 

Take a Little Trip

“The accompanying video in the installation compiles segments of their filmed speech wherein they express their thoughts on an array of topics related to their work ranging from the role of an artist in society, to [their] individual approaches to creating, to their influences, to how their work is deliberately misrepresented. As opposed to Blur, which is predicated on a lack of specificity Brewster very much intends for viewers of Take a Little Trip to recognize the subjects and to hear them address their work in their own words.

Installed around the perimeter of the gallery, the black and white works function as an elegy to figures who have had an immense impact on Black thought and cultural movements as well as a monument to autonomy, artistry and global diasporic cultural practice. At a time when it seems that we are losing so many Black figures who were leaders and stalwarts in the creative sector Brewster’s exhibition provides us with a space in which we can pay homage and remember.”

Excerpt from exhibition essay by Sally Frater

Take a Little Trip Olga Korper Gallery, February 19 – March 19, 2022

Minnie Riperton 1/3, 2021-22, photo-based gel transfer on archival paper
Salome Bey 1/3, 2021-22, photo-based gel transfer on archival paper
Toni Morrison 1/3, 2021-22, photo-based gel transfer on archival paper
Jean-Michel Basquiat 1/3, 2021-22, photo-based gel transfer on archival paper

Nina Simone 1/3, 2021-22, photo-based gel transfer on archival paper
Take a Little Trip | 2022 | Work