Register for three days of exhibition, conversation & performance

Black women didn't just appear in hip hop culture. They helped build its visual language.

This September, Fashioning Identities in the Age of Representation brings together artists, photographers, designers, academics and cultural practitioners for a three-day London exhibition examining the role of Black women in hip hop as cultural producers and brand architects.

Moving between the stage, street, beauty salon, fashion image, music industry and archive, the exhibition considers how Black women have used fashion, photography, beauty, performance and visual identity to construct cultural narratives — while also confronting questions of representation, ownership, commodification and the politics of who controls the image.

The exhibition invites audiences to look beyond the performer to the wider systems of cultural production: the photographers, stylists, designers, image-makers, creatives and communities responsible for producing some of hip hop's most influential aesthetics.

Day 1

• Press Viewing, 10-2 PM

• Curators’ Conversation: Jacqueline Springer: Black Women in Hip Hop as Cultural Producers and Brand Architects, 2-3 PM

• Evening launch event with DJ Taylor Rae, artist voices and live performance by Julian Alexander, 5-8 PM

Day 2

• Open Viewing Day, 10 - 5 PM

• In Conversation with UK hip-hop pioneer Cookie Pryce and First Ladies of Hip Hop documentary producer Karen Gabay, 1-2 PM

Day 3

• Public viewing, 10-1 PM