LionHeart in his film Sentient Brutalism, 2024. © LionHeart 2024.
In our London selling exhibition SEEING RED, curators Jane Neal and Fru Tholstrup highlight the individuality and independence of more than three dozen artists with a diverse and dynamically ranging feast of responses to the color red.
Among the most gloriously enigmatic and zealously passionate of these is the poem “Red’s Retort” by Rhael ‘LionHeart’ Cape Hon FRIBA — more commonly known simply as LionHeart.
Below, we’re thrilled to catch up with the 36-year-old up-and-coming sensation, as we trace through the fascinating threads of his unusual career and innovative multi-disciplinary approach.
How LionHeart Sees Red
Phillips: Your poem “Red’s Retort" appears on the wall in SEEING RED at Phillips in London and you'll be performing it during a live event in the gallery. Congratulations, your giving the color a voice is a startling and potent approach.
LionHeart: I wanted to characterize red, suggesting a character of undeniable influence and opinion. In some ways, the brief became an amalgamation, of where I am emotionally in my life, and a conceptualization of personifying the color red against the backdrop of how society has conditioned us to view it. In a sense, I wanted to give a voice to its voiceless influence, and spark provocation and enquiry... into what Red says, and how we see that in order to see it and therefore ourselves.
Phillips: It’s a color, yes, but it feels like a character in your poem. Why do you cast the poem as a “retort” in its title?
LionHeart: I was originally going to use the word ‘repudiate’, it’s a word I first encountered whilst reading a James Baldwin book, but it didn’t capture the sensibility I wanted, whereas ‘retort’ allowed me to suggest something, suggest something had been done or said prior, giving Red— the object in our eyes— an opportunity to shape perception further.
Phillips: You’re quite the shaper of perception. Often your poems hover in feelings of warmth and well being. This one feels very overtly expressionistic.
LionHeart: It’s the season I’m in as an artist. For instance, my Art Film ‘Sentient Brutalism’ is definitely in that world of passion, intensity and provocation. It serves and services the human spirit in a strange way, an unorthodox way. I am learning to translate this new season I’m in through my art, for others to feel their way through this season in their lives too.
An Unconventional Evolution
Phillips: What can you tell us about your journey as a creative being and as an artist?
LionHeart: I’ve had so many revelations, journeying this creative path reveals so much about who you are, how you do things and the value of authenticity in a world of much conformity and saturation. My journey has been a slow one compared to others, but it’s this duration that has galvanized my multihyphenate approach to my artistry, so it all aligns. Somehow.
I’ve also become a culture of helping others, I’ve had a few great people along the way, but too few, so my journey has been about leading a tribe through my supportive actions and art. I’d love to be known one day for being the artist who helped people and how they felt. I love the artists that did that for me. It’s kept me going.
Phillips: You seem to have emerged simultaneously in two distinct universes — in London’s art world and spoken word communities. How different are the two for you?
LionHeart: It’s a symbiotic relationship, even if they don’t collaborate or share the same spaces, they’re family, they’re connected, they’re in service together.
A big difference though, would be the value we place on poetry, written and performed, I’m hoping the legacy I continue to carve out increases the global value poets and their work have, which is a big motivation for the show The Poets’ Revival I’m presenting with Royal Albert Hall on May 1st.
Phillips: You first came to wide attention for being the poet in residence at architectural firms. It was a unique proposition that you pioneered. How did your first residency come about?
LionHeart: My first residency was with MSDA and then with Grimshaw, both saw me walking through the doors of their office, no pitch deck, no invitation, just me and a passionate idea about the important connection between poetry, architecture, and mental health. They were the first willing and receptive practices who believed in me and my vision. The format of my residencies have since escalated to such a higher plasticity of creativity.
Phillips: Are you continuing to do residencies or is this evolving into something else? Is your current work all a continuation of this trajectory?
LionHeart: Exactly that, my current work is a direct evolution from the research and residencies I’ve done through the last 5 or so years, although now, I may only do a residency once or twice a year.
Phillips: Do you have any sense of where this might be taking you? Of late, the exhibition format seems to interest you. Does this represent a new direction in the work?
LionHeart: You have no idea where it’ll take you. Which is the beauty of it. I’ve noticed those moments mean even more than strategizing for where you wish to arrive, we’re arriving every day that we decide to venture further into being an artist. Every day.
I’m fascinated by the exhibition format yes! I have these disruptive ideas of circumventing how a space is used/perceived, my practice has become one of digital interventions within analogue spaces, so I’m looking at architecture — this form born of pscyho-negotiations — as a mutable medium. Who knows where I’ll go next. I’m very much lead by the idea of using poems and visual arts to create spaces we can live in, finding a formula or DNA that does this intrigues me.
Empathic Vibes and Connections
Phillips: What is your hope for how the audience will engage with and experience your poem?
LionHeart: I’m open to their engagement, that’s out of my control once it’s out of my hands... it’s in theirs. I’m so concerned with how people feel, I think my art is naturally empathic no matter the format it’s received in. My only hope would be that it adds to them, even if it takes something away.
Phillips: Lastly, who inspires you?
LionHeart: I return to James Baldwin, Virgil Abloh, Buddy Wakefield, Sam Sax, Aja Monet and Saul Williams whenever I feel like sparking inspiration. I love finding new artists too! Even if it’s just to immerse myself in their art or existence, it inspires me. Amongst many other artists, for instance Ja’Tovia Gary, Theaster Gates, Kehinde Wiley and Taj Francis. Es Devlin is a huge inspiration of mine, and has been for years!
I’m hoping the poets and artists that witness my work, find a curiousity to push to new frontiers and new terrains of interest, that add to us all.
I’m a big fan of the mind, poetry and art of Caleb Femi, he’s a friend but also an inspiration of mine.
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