“A lot of my work is all about the beauty of recording.” - Steve McQueen

Shot on Super 8mm in the 1990s, ‘Exodus’ was filmed at London’s Brick Lane market and follows two men, each carrying a budding palm tree, who weave their way through crowds onto the number 243 bus to Wood Green. McQueen filmed the footage quickly and spontaneously, before leaving it and returning to it three years later. It bears witness to the artist’s decision, at the age of 22, to record the world he was moving through - an approach that was neither strictly reportage nor cinéma vérité.

The work is currently on show at Tate Britain, as part of ‘Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 1950s - Now.’

Exhibition dates: 1 December 2021 - 3 April 2022