Historically in England, representations of the black body constitute a ubiquitous presence across fine art and popular culture. Until now however, the subject has received only marginal critical attention. Over the past two decades, new generations of artists working with the moving image have begun to reverse this trend - revealing how images of 'otherness' have been central to commonplace definitions of identity within the symbolic order of the modern West.

The Black Moving Cube will bring together, for the first time in history, 20 years of black visual art film practice - within an exhibition format. This involves a selection of key works from 1986 - 2006 that explore the black body by film and visual artists from Britain. With newly commissioned works to be produced alongside a wide range of archival and contemporary material, to both document these critical developments and to provoke further debate within the visual arts.

Historically the work of black artist working with the moving image in this country has always been neatly confined to the discourse of identity politics. Yet if one looks 'historically' at the work of artist such as: Isaac Julien, Jess Hall, Martina Attille, the Black Audio Film Collective, Yinka Shonibare, Aliya Syed, Jananne Al Ani, Zeneb Sedira, Steve McQueen, Zarina Bhimji, and Keith Piper, it is quite clear that their film work, individually, explores a diversity of concerns.

What is distinctive about their work which connects them to white innovative experimental post-war film artists such as Maya Deren and Kenneth Macpherson is that these artist use the black body within film as a site to comment upon and make strategic inputs into the colonial terrain of Western art practices.

Black Moving Cube is directed and curated by David A. Bailey.