ABSTRACT
This chapter continues our discussion of Gilroy’s theory of the black Atlantic by doing two things: it will consider the methodological framework of diaspora and Gilroy’s contribution to the study of visual culture. While these aspects of his work could be discussed separately there are good reasons to look at them in tandem: some concrete examples will demonstrate that diaspora is not an abstract concept, but is the model structuring how certain black British artists construct a sense of identity and belonging in their work. In the 1980s and early 1990s Gilroy regularly referred to black British artists Keith Piper (1960–present), David A. Bailey (1961–present) and Sonia Boyce (1962–present), and explained how their work is recognizably British and part of a black Atlantic field of cultural production. This transnational focus should not be confined to the study of black British art: Gilroy uses it to understand British culture as a whole.
