Upon first entering the Yale Center for British Art’s grand lobby, sephsees was confronted by a trio of ships hung on wires suspended from the ceiling. The bows of Hew Locke’s boats all point in the same direction, and all are loaded with cargo, as if they were plucked from the sea mid-journey and shrunken down to fit inside the gallery. Only two have sails, and those are no more than tattered and torn remnants. hewdjlocke is known for making art that deals with the legacies of empire and its symbols of power, with the ramifications of nation building to combat the privations of world superpowers. The key code word used to corral this historical complexity is “colonialism” or “postcolonialism.” Seph Rodney could have used his review of “Passages,” Locke’s survey exhibition at yalebritishart, to plumb the depths of the artist’s aesthetic and intellectual struggle against a tarnishing, rusting inheritance. But the boats asked him to pose different questions since they seem to carry Lock...