Denzil Forrester features in ‘Dance Your Way Home’

Discover incredible art across the Southbank Centre's outdoor spaces with uplifting and inspiring works connected to the theme of their summer season, Dance Your Way Home.

Over the summer months, view Denzil Forrester's 'Tutti-Frutti Tu' and ‘DJ Mix’ on either side of the Royal Festival Hall. Rendered in Forrester’s characteristic deep purple palette, ‘Tutti-Frutti Tu’ depicts a crowd dancing in front of altar-like decks as two figures spin and mix. Dominated by bright shades of yellow and green, ‘DJ Mix’ is a characteristic example of Forrester’s practice. The figures’ distinctive clothing and expressive movements reflect the dub and reggae scene, which continues to inspire the British-Grenadian artist’s work.

As a young man growing up in East London, Forrester was struck by the freedom of expression in the reggae and dub nightclubs in Hackney: a marked contrast to the daily lives of London’s Afro-Caribbean community at that time. He began bringing paper, pastel and charcoal into the clubs – sketching to the length of a record in the semi-darkness. In his studio the next morning, Forrester would transpose the sketches into large-scale paintings, using dynamic brushstrokes to echo the gestures of the dancing revellers.

You can find a series of artworks inside and outside the Southbank, which celebrate all of the ways that dance connects communities.