Libertalia, HIVE Blackpool
January 15, 2020In December I was part of the group exhibition at HIVE called ‘Libertalia’ with an image of a ‘pirates beach’ from Goa that I just visited. Artist Alexis K Johnson, who co-conceived the show, explains. “There are legends of pirates who founded this amazing self-governed city 300 years ago with their pirate gold in a hidden location in Europe. They had no hierarchy, people came together to make things happen. This level of equality doesn’t even exist today – it was radical. In those days pirates were seen as guardians of liberty, turning our idea of what a pirate is on its head. So we thought wouldn’t it be exciting to bring this story to the people of Blackpool, who are pirates at heart. We’re grateful to Arts Council England for supporting us to do this.”