Portraits of Coventry

Bailo came to Coventry fifteen years ago seeking sanctuary. He was fleeing Guinea in fear for his life after being involved in protests against the regime. Bailo told artist Andy Farr how he feels about Coventry for Portraits of Coventry, part of our ‘At Home in Coventry’ project in partnership with Coventry City of Culture. He describes Coventry as a fantastic place, but nonetheless his life still has tensions and struggles, both within his community in Britain and fighting the enduring sense of loss of his family, who are still in Guinea.

With Bailo’s painting, Andy wanted to represent both this connection back to his heritage and family in West Africa, and the life that he is now building in Coventry. He also wanted to convey the warmth of Bailo’s heart that “shines through his face”. The shapes and colours in the background are based on the fabric and patterns of his sister’s dress, which she is wearing in one of the few pictures he has of her, and from a belt that she gave him before he had to leave. This belt represents the ties back to his culture. This imagery is combined with the use of the colour blue, the “moving blue” of Coventry, representing Bailo’s journey from Africa to Coventry.

Daksha is a force of nature; an active community organiser with a particular focus on the area around Foleshill. She spoke to artist Andy Farr for Portraits of Coventry, part of our ‘At Home in Coventry’ project in partnership with Coventry City of Culture.

Her family moved to Coventry in 1972 as a result of the expulsion of Asians from Uganda by Idi Amin. Following a military coup in 1971, the self-declared President of Uganda went on to rule over Uganda. Under his dictatorship, there was a lot of ethnic persecution and he ordered the expulsion of the country’s Asian minority, giving them 90 days to leave the country. This led to over 27,000 people fleeing to the UK from Uganda. And one of them was two-year-old Daksha.

Daksha’s uncle had moved to Coventry several years before, so when she arrived in the UK with her parents and older brother, after a brief spell in overcrowded housing, the family decided to settle in Keresley Village. Her father drew upon his expertise as a gold and silver miner to work at Keresley Colliery. They moved into Jackson Close, where the family was embraced by community, despite tensions in some other areas of the City.

After what Daksha describes as an ‘idyllic’ childhood, times became harder after the death of her father when she was only 11, and Coventry started to feel like a dark and dangerous place for her. Daksha developed a level of inner resilience and independence that is still present in all her activities today. This was one of the things that Andy wanted to capture in his painting.

She went on to attend secondary school in Coventry and later studied Economics and Sociology at the University of Leeds. Daksha now lives in Finham with her husband Brian, who she met in 1994, and their three children, Amara, James and Alex. She is the founder of Foleshill Creates, a community arts group based at Broad Street Hall in Coventry.

Foleshill Creates was established in 2019 and aims to bring people together to help tackle loneliness, isolation and improve mental wellbeing. Their workshops are held every Tuesday at 10:30am and encourage artists in and around Foleshill to showcase their work and skills, by hosting sessions for local people who are interested in developing their creativity.

In recent times, Daksha has been delivering an Orbit funded project called ‘At Home’. The project uses visual arts and storytelling workshops to reflect on the people, places and objects which make home ‘feel like home’. The workshops asked people to reflect on their ideas and memories of what home means to them, in the past, present and future.

Andy's painting shows the cosmopolitan influences that have helped to shape who Daksha is today. The background is based on the pattern of a pocket square of her father’s, combined with the vibrant yellow of her favourite sari, a pendant from her “Nani Ma” and Hindu ankle bells. Daksha herself is wearing western clothes, and the whole painting is overlaid with elements from a mural in Foleshill (which can be found on the wall of the Broad Street Meeting Hall), created by one of the community groups she helps to organise and inspire, with local artist Michael Batchelor.

Colin talked to artist Andy Farr about his memories of Coventry for Portraits of Coventry, part of our ‘At Home in Coventry’ project in partnership with Coventry City of Culture. Colin moved to Coventry in the early 1970s to work as an Industrial Radiologist. He used powerful machines to x-ray engine castings for Alvis during the City’s industrial heyday. These machines were many times more powerful than the ones used in hospitals to see through humans!

When he arrived in Coventry, it was still a very engineering-orientated city, with a vibrant manufacturing sector producing cars, bikes, watches, chemicals, textiles, aircraft components and armoured vehicles. As Colin remembers, “The wages were high and the opportunities were immense”.

Colin has many current interests, and is involved with both Coventry and Warwick universities as a part time lecturer, as a member of singing groups and theatres and as a church warden.

For this painting Andy wanted to convey “something of the polymath that is Colin” – combining his engineering background using an image of an industrial X-ray with a photograph taken by the BBC of Colin holding a skull - Alas poor Yorick, I knew him well. This is a link to his abiding interest in theatre - he remembers as a child coming to Coventry from Birmingham to see pantomimes and later in life he became involved in an over 50’s drama group.

In 1987 when Coventry won the FA Cup Final, Steve was there. He has still got the scarf and the ticket. He remembers Keith Houchen’s amazing diving header that took the score to 2-2 before Coventry City won in extra time. And he remembers the celebrations that enveloped the City following the Sky Blue’s victory, the one and only time in the club’s history.

“I went to the FA Cup Final in ‘87, we surprised everyone by beating Tottenham. I mean, we went to extra time and then it was 2-2, and then Gary Mabbutt scored an own goal and that meant 3-2 to us at the final whistle and Coventry won the cup.”

Steve told artist Andy Farr about the match when he talked to him for Portraits of Coventry, part of our ‘At Home in Coventry’ project in partnership with Coventry City of Culture. Steve has spent his life in the city, and was born just off the Gulson Road. Sadly, he was a victim of the decline in Coventry’s car industry in the early 1980s.

Steve is a mine of information about Coventry’s past. His recollections go all the way back to include those of his father who remembered seeing Laurel and Hardy perform at the Hippodrome, now the site of the Coventry Transport Museum.

Steve inherited his father’s musicality, modestly mentioning his Grade 7 piano almost in passing!

“I went to a lady called Mrs Russell [to learn to play the piano]. She died of a heart attack at age 68 when I was only 21. So I gave up after that, like an idiot, and people have said it was a natural gift, you could have been like Liberace….”

For Steve’s painting, Andy wanted to immortalise the 1987 FA Cup victory. The painting features a Roy Lichtenstein-inspired pop art version of “that goal” alongside Steve sporting his treasured FA Cup Final scarf, and the score from his favourite piece of music – "The Dream of Olwen" composed by Charles Williams.