Hew Locke: the Queen through my eyes
To mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, Channel 4 News asks a cartoonist, a sculptor, an actress and a photographer to describe their view of her majesty.
Sculptor Hew Locke was born in Edinburgh, and spent many years in Guyana before basing himself in London. His work can be viewed in the British Museum and the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, among others.
He told Channel 4 News his work based on the image of the Queen “started out as a personal thing”.
“She is a human being but also she is the head of the armed forces and so all of these things merge together and end up producing fetishised images of the Queen – something much more psychological..
“I was working from 1950s photographs which I really don’t like. They leave a funny taste in your mouth because they remind me of things [from] when I was a kid.
“I am neither a royalist nor republican as regards the Queen but I find her a fascinating subject to work with.”
