Hurvin Anderson | Barbershop – Paradise | 2010 – 2016 | Durham Press Limited Edition Fine Art Prints and Multiples

The two collaborations between artist Hurvin Anderson and Durham Press, Barbershop (2010) and Paradise (2016), center around the common motif of a barbershop, which Anderson describes as such a "complex and ambiguous space that I felt compelled to return to it again and again." Each published as editions of forty on Lana Royal paper, these two prints demonstrate Anderson's continued connection to the barbershop which he also explores throughout his painting practice, most notably in his Peter Series. For Anderson, barbershops are not only a place to have your hair cut, but also a social space. Converting small attics into these spaces which doubled as barbershops and social institutions was common practice amongst first wave Afro-Caribbeans. Having emigrated to Britain from Jamaica, Anderson's family belonged to this group - in fact, this series itself was derived from a photograph taken when Anderson was picking up his father at a barbershop such as this one.

Like many of Anderson's works, Barbershop and Paradise exist between abstraction and representation, memory and experience. Each capture a space where stories are told, interactions are had, information shared, all without a figure present. Barbershop chairs, the most representational image in each print, become a stand in for a human figure amongst the abstracted mirrors and products lining the tables. Barbershop and Paradise act as further exploration of cross-culturalism, identity, and the relationship between figuration and abstraction, a common theme throughout Anderson's larger practice.