As part of Dover Arts Development’s you can reach the world from dover 2023 Festival, POKIT and Tomas Poblete present a series of photographs from their residency.

Set out in 1834 as a direct route for the military to ferry supplies and troops to the castle, Castle
Street soon evolved into an elegant 19th century street with a mixture of high-class shops, services and fine houses. Today, it is arguably one of the most architecturally significant streets in Dover’s old town.

This project and residency is based on observing the daily comings and goings on the street since February 2022 whilst attempting to restore a former dentist – 30 and 32 Castle Street – into two family homes. POKIT (Bayode Oduwole & Claire
Pringle) and fellow resident artist Tomas Poblete have collaborated to bring a different perspective
to the street. Together, they depict a cross-section of its ‘core’ and long-term population; those who live and those who make their livelihoods here. This series of direct yet sensitive portraits reveal a genuine community.

You are asked by the artists to look at the sitters, observe and reflect on them and on yourself, to look through the prism of history up to the current
day. These faces are different and, perhaps, similar to those of the past connecting the thread
of place and home between the past and present. Each sitter is deliberately placed in a white canvas suit, a blank canvas offering a uniformity that only serves to intensify the point.

"We were asked to participate in the missing Thread exhibition held at Somerset House. We submitted a tryptich artwork in blue, red and yellow made in 2012 which was part of a silk screened print series. They acted as actual printing blocks from which corresponding charcoal drawings were made. Once dried these positives left a textured and poetic silhouette which placed together and conjoined are  transformed into celebrations of colour. They're like a crowd scene of outcasts. There's a strange solemnity to   them. It captures a point I'd been working towards of seeing the suit as sculptures very much in the footsteps of Beuys"  Bayode Oduwole

Spanning from the 1970s to the present day, The Missing Thread, curated by the Black Orientated Legacy Development Agency (BOLD), charts the shifting landscape of Black British culture and the unique contribution it has made to Britain’s rich fashion design history.   

Black creativity has had a profound influence on British fashion and continues to be referenced to great effect, often without acknowledgement. The exhibition seeks to redress this, celebrating the unique visions and impact of a generation of trailblazing Black creatives whose contributions have been misrepresented or excluded from the story of British fashion. 

Set against a backdrop of politics and culture, the show examines how Black style and creativity has evolved across the decades and in turn influenced the world of fashion through music, photography, art and design.  

Image by Bayode Oduwole. Title: Blue, Red, Yellow. Acrylic on canvas.

Image by Blanca Major. Cyanotype ink on paper 50cm X 35cm.
This art work explores the idea of multiple silhouettes. It was produced for the launch of our new easy fit bespoke service specifically developed for the Tokyo market and launched at our Zurich show, December 2022. It allows us to fit remotely and rapidly.

Directed & Performed by Ellie Gordon & Isabella Mahmoud
DOP Max Edmed
Camera assistant Tom Hall
Art Department Luca Staemley & Ellen Pearson
Edited by Francesca Tesler
Music written, performed and produced by Tim Wilson