We Came The Long Way, And I Thought You Knew is the presentation of a recently made body of work by Ashley Holmes that will be displayed across QUAD’s Extra Gallery Spaces. This collection of sound sketches, works on paper and sculptural objects draws on his ongoing research into music from Jamaica and the African Diaspora.
In this exhibition, Holmes’ will explore the ways Black music provides a framework to understand and re-imagine alternative knowledge systems and conceptions of space and place. The exhibition takes its title from the lyrics of The Long Way, a song released in 1976 by popular Reggae musician Junior Byles - a homage to and continuation of Holmes’ fascination into the role of performer and songwriter as orator.
At varying points throughout the connecting stairwells and mezzanines in QUAD, Holmes will install audio and visual references to Dub music and the sonic metaphor of the abyss, as a means of conjuring up interpretations of the integral role experiments with distance, scale, and silence play within the genre. This is intended to explore collective memory in an attempt to contemplate the disconnect between metaphysical genealogy and a way of being British, and of Caribbean heritage.