Lewisham artist launches exhibition The Thousand Year Kingdom at the Saatchi Gallery

A Lewisham-based artist has launched his first solo exhibition containing large-scale woodblock prints at the Saatchi Gallery, writes Sharin Hussain.

Artist, writer and curator of site design at Southbank Centre, Cedar Lewisohn’s exhibition, The Thousand Year Kingdom opened at the West London gallery on October 29.

Mr Lewisohn, 44, said: “I’m really happy to see the response. It will be interesting to see what people make of it.”
The exhibition features a series of large scale handmade woodblock prints primarily made throughout 2013.

The prints were inspired by African and Mesopotamian objects from museum collections in the UK and Europe.

The images portray objects found in the British Museum’s Benin Bronzes exhibition, the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Petrie Museum.

The depictions of objects from ancient civilisations are mixed with symbols of the contemporary world that refer to youth culture in the UK, such as drill music, creating an abstract narrative that references social, ethical and political issues.

Mr Lewisohn said: “There’s been a lot of tragedy and a lot of sadness in the last couple of years but a lot of debates have been ignited.

“The Black Lives Matter movement has really added fuel to the fire on the debate about the repatriation of objects in museum collections.

“It was a pivotal moment and it seeps into so many different areas of everyday life, including art.

“So in a sense, the way that it shone a light on the subjects that a lot of people have been looking at for a long time. I think there’s some positives there as well.”

The inspiration for the exhibition name is a reference from the Bible from Genesis in the last chapter of the New Testament.

Mr Lewisohn said: “There’s something quite nice about the references to Mesopotamia and Egypt and all these ancient worlds and it feels like it all ties into these kinds of biblical references somehow, but also putting that in the contemporary world.”

The exhibition also includes a selection of prints from Mr Lewisohn’s acclaimed comic book, The Marduk Prophecy, published in 2020.

The exhibition is on until Sunday, November 28.

For more information visit www.saatchigallery.com/exhibition/the_thousand_year_kingdom