Steve McQueen
Further images
career. This silent, color film, made with a
handheld Super 8, captures two men
smartly dressed in hats and coats moving
through the crowded streets of London.
Unlike most of his subsequent work, Exodus
captures an event McQueen encountered by
chance while out walking with his camera.
“I was in Brick Lane market,” McQueen
recalls. “There were these two old fellows . . .
almost ceremoniously walking along, one
behind the other. . . . I got the impression
they were in a relationship, that they were
a couple.” Notably both men carry a potted
coconut palm. Early in the film the first man
smiles broadly and speaks (soundlessly) to
the camera; the second smiles shyly as he
passes by. They diverge from one another,
temporarily lost in the crowd, even as the
palms merrily waving above their heads
mark their passage through it. As their pace
outstrips that of the camera, they cross a
street against oncoming traffic to board a
double-decker bus; in the final moments
one of the men waves goodbye from an
upper rear window.
The word exodus describes a passage
to freedom, referring most directly to the
departure of the Israelites from Egypt
under the leadership of Moses, the central
narrative of the second book of the Bible.
Ultimately McQueen’s Exodus can be
understood as a poetic, metaphoric consideration
of the experiences, movements,
and migrations that constitute the global
African diaspora.
Exhibitions
Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 1950s – Now , Tate Britain, London, 1 December 2021 – 3 April 2022Steve McQueen, Tate Modern, London, England, 13 February - 11 May 2020
Dead Ringer, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth, Australia, 14 November – 27 December 2014Steve McQueen: Works, Schaulager Basel, Basel,
Switzerland, 1 March – 7 July 2013
VIDEO XXI. Collección Lemaître, Museo de
Arte de Lima, Lima, Peru, 8 July – 3 October 2010
Revolutions, University Art Gallery, La Jolla CA, 28 March - 17 May
2008
Electrones libres. Una Selección de videos
de la colección Lemaître, Tabacalera
International Contemporary Culture Centre, San Sebastián, Spain, 27 April - 17
June 2007
Faces in the Crowd. Picturing Modern Life
from Manet to Today, Whitechapel
Gallery, London, England, 3 December 2004 - 6 March 2005; [travelled to:
Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Turin, Italy, 6 April - 10 July
2005]
Recaptured Nature, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York NY, 7 July - 29
August 2003
Steve McQueen. Caribs’ Leap/Western
Deep, Artangel at the
Lumiere, London, England, 4 October - 10 November 2002; [travelled to: Museo de
Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto, Portugal, 25 January - 13 April 2003;
Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, Spain, 5 December 2003 - 16 February 2004]
Steve
McQueen, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland, 12
June – 15 August 1999
Steve McQueen, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, England, 30 January - 21
March 1999
La coscienza luccicante. Dalla video arte all’arte interattiva/The Glittering Consciousness. From Video Art to Interactive Art, Palazzo dell Esposizioni, Rome, Italy, 16 September - 30 October 1998
Steve McQueen, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York NY, 22 May - 28 June 1997
Collections
Charpenel Collection, Guadalajara, Mexico
Pinault Collection, Venice, Italy
Lemaître Collection
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL
Literature
Farquharson, Alex and David A. Bailey, eds., Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 1950s-Now, London: Tate Publishing, 2022 p. 240 col. ill.
Parker, Rianna Jade, ed., A Brief History of Black British Art, London: Tate Publishing, 2021 pp. 102-103 ill.
Kim, Clara and Fiontan Moran, eds., Steve McQueen, London: Tate Publishing, 2020 pp. 80-89 ill.
The Essential Guide, Chicago: Art
Institute of Chicago, 2015 (4th edition) p. 276 ill.
Robb, Leigh, Madison Magladry and Tim Gregory, eds., Dead ringer, Northbridge: Perth Institute Contemporary Art, 2014
Demos, T.J., The Migrant Image: The Art
and Politics of Documentary during Global Crisis, Durham: Duke University
Press, 2013 p. 47 ill.
Steve McQueen: Works, Chicago: Art
Institute of Chicago; Basel: Schaulager Basel; Berlin: Kehrer, 2012 pp. 64-65
ill.
Gerald,
Matt. Interviews, Vienna: Kunsthalle Wien, 2007, pp. 236
ill.
Free electrons: Selected videos
from the Lemaître collection, San
Sebastián: Tabacalera, 2007
Faces in the Crowd: Picturing Modern life from Manet to today, London: Whitechapel Art Gallery; Rivoli: Castello di Rivoli; Milan: Skira, 2004
Kystof, Doris, ed., Steve McQueen, texts by Gerald Matt, Doris
Kystof, Thomas Miessgang and Ilka Becker, Vienna: Kunsthalle Wien, 2001 p. 26
ill.
Steve McQueen, Caracas: Sala Mendoza;
Cape Town: Institute for Contemporary Art; São Paulo: Museu de Arte Moderna de
São Paulo, 2000 (cover) ill.
Van Noord, Gerrie, ed., Steve McQueen, texts by Robert Storr, Michael Newman and Okwui Enwezor, London:
ICA; Zurich: Kunsthalle Zürich, 1999 p. 11 ill.