LOUIS CAMERON

On the occasion of the exhibition Starless Midnight at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, co-curated by Edgar Arceneaux and Laurence Sillars, Louis Cameron was commissioned to produce two works and presented the I AM ... poster portfolio from his collaborative venture The Poster Project presents. The exhibition looks at the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. within the current political context in the United States and the United Kingdom. It coincides with the 50th anniversary of Newcastle University bestowing an honorary doctorate on Dr. King in 1968, shortly before his assassination the same year.

IC OUR ILLS, 2017 is a redaction of the landmark lettering on the side of the Baltic Centre for the Arts building, that functioned in the past as a flour mill. Letters in the original building title that read "BALTIC FLOUR MILLS" were covered to reveal an imbedded text, "IC OUR ILLS." The latent phrase is meant to be a recognition of the troubles in the world as identified by the viewer.

NOW! is a poster billboard that evokes the 1963 March on Washington while speaking to the present. The text is taken from posters that were used at the March on Washington. Martin Luther King Jr. writes of the word “NOW” in his 1964 book Why We Can’t Wait, “It is because the negro knows that no person—as well as no nation—can truly exist half slave and half free that he has embroidered upon his banners the significant word NOW.”

The I AM ...  portfolio is a suite of posters by Black male artists addressing the recent violence against Black men and disregard for their lives in the United States.