Jem Perucchini sees the past and future in Brixton

Typical November. It’s wet and windy. I keep my head down as I step off the bus and jump over a puddle, past the chuggers and dogs and rubbish and then I see something that lifts me, something worth travelling for: two women in golden robes, mirror images of each other, one holding a purple orb of power. To their sides are figures holding spears and standing guard. Behind them, the blazing sun rises on a new day. It’s an allegorical image of past and present, meeting here, at Brixton Station.

Rebirth of a Nation is a new work by the Ethiopian-Italian artist Jem Perucchini, which has been painted, scanned, printed and plastered to the slanted ceiling of the south London tube station’s entrance hall. The work was commissioned by Transport for London and is part of the organisation’s long-running Art on the Underground programme, which turns the stations and trains of the network into spaces for contemporary art. Perucchini’s mural is the latest monumental work to be installed in Brixton Station and will remain on display for another 12 months. Previously exhibited artists include Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Joy Labinjo.

“When I was asked to undertake the work for the Brixton station, I was delighted because I am aware of how profoundly rich the neighbourhood is in diverse cultures,” Perucchini tells me by email. He says he was “particularly intrigued” by the area’s history of immigration, protests and its profound connection with art and artists. He was also interested in the role Brixton plays as a pivot point between the centre of the city and its periphery. The area is one of stark divides between wealth and poverty, and as the southernmost station on the Victoria Line, it’s the departure and arrival point for tens of thousands of commuters every day. In the station’s entrance hall, under Perucchini’s artwork, cultures, classes, residents and travellers all meet.

The meeting of past and future is one way of describing Perucchini’s art. He’s an artist who always returns to history. His main reference is Italian art history. You can draw a direct line between the mosaics and murals that decorated medieval churches and Perucchini’s paintings. His figures have the calm serenity of those of the Renaissance artists Piero della Francesca and Fra Angelico. But his interests extend beyond art. “I draw my inspiration from everything around me,” he says, ”books I read, museums, the intricate details of clothing, or even architecture.” The richly patterned clothes that he paints also recall wax cloth printed fabrics fashionable throughout West and Central Africa.

Of course, Brixton is a particularly important place in the history of Black people in Britain – it’s where many West Indian migrants settled after their arrival in 1948 on the Empire Windrush – but Perucchini wanted to look further back in time. His research eventually led him to the Ivory Bangle Lady. This was a woman who lived some time in the 4th Century CE, around the end of the Roman Empire. She originally came from North Africa, but was buried in York. The grave was filled with rich objects, including a rare ivory bracelet. The Ivory Bangle Lady is proof that Britain has been ethnically and socially diverse for a much longer period than many people expect.

Fundamentally, Perucchini is interested in how our present is shaped by stories of the past. This explains the unusual title of his work, which might ring bells for some viewers. Rebirth of a Nation is named after the American film Birth of a Nation (1915). The film told a fictional history of the USA in which the KKK are saviours of a white country. It was made explicitly to justify the racism of its day. Perucchini’s work upends this. Rebirth of a Nation uses the real history of Britain to shape a more positive vision of Black people in Britain. “I hope that individuals take a moment to pause and become intrigued by the story behind this artwork,” Perucchini says. His art is researched, richly detailed and layered, but what he wants to make people feel is simple: “the hope for a more equitable and inclusive future.”