Larry Amponsah is having his first solo in the UK at 50 Golborne: When a Stone Cracks, We Don’t Stitch, curated by Katherine Finerty. This immersive, multi-media exhibition explores the unique street and neighbourhood in North Notting Hill, which the gallery calls home through the eyes and experiences of a young Ghanaian artist. Rejecting restricted identifiers such as foreigner or outsider, Amponsah who was born in Accra and studied painting in Kumasi, China, and then London, where he lives and works now – investigates how people from around the world travel, connect, and create communities.

In his explorations of the market street of Golborne Road and its surrounding area characterised by waves of immigrants including the Caribbean Windrush Generation the artist has gathered secret histories, collective memories, and personal confrontations as material to create a new body of work. In his search for black excellence within diverse spaces, Larry Amponsah references his own West African upbringing within a greater global narrative of how displacement and refraction can lead to collaboration and resilience.

A selection of large-scale, colour-blocked collages will provide key entry points for viewers to enter this hybrid cultural landscape

Larry Amponsah, traditionally trained as a painter, creates collages made of archival images, objects, and stories from various cultures in order to negotiate systems of power and create new ways of transcending boundaries. Curiosity and chance become modes not only to survive, but moreover, to thrive. The exhibition itself thus functions as a collage of both materials and experiences, from paintings and sculptures to audio-visual installations and special events hosted by the artist’s creative network alongside people from the local community (Notting hill).

A selection of large-scale, colour-blocked collages will provide key entry points for viewers to enter this hybrid cultural landscape. Led In Strange Ways (2019), for example, functions as an immersive portal of Rhapsody in Blue, where different peoples and places are combined like diverse styles of music – a liminal world where the Blues born in the Deep South meets the Underground Blues Parties that rocked Notting Hill in the lead-up to Carnival. This assemblage weaves together layers of memory, imagination, and history, combining photographs from Black British historical archives, books providing the foundation of Larry Amponsah’s research, and even fake hair extensions from a salon in Peckham and one of his relatives.

How can we comprehend the many layers and cracks of immigrant imaginaries with sight of a cosmopolitan future?

The artist thereby invites us to be a part of his journey, and to join him in asking: how can we comprehend the many layers and cracks of immigrant imaginaries with sight of a cosmopolitan future? How can we find unity within our differences without forgetting, or silencing, our pasts? A leading principle behind this search can be expressed through the Asante Twi proverb ‘3boɔ Pae a Y3 Mpam’ (translated by the artist as ‘When a Stone Cracks, We Don’t Stitch’), which has inspired the title of this exhibition. It means you don’t have to, or indeed can’t, mend fissures in life and history. Amponsah remembers his grandparents imparting this wise saying to him, activating the rich tradition of proverbs in Ghana in which specific phrases connote powerful ideas that give agency to a wide spectrum of ages, social roles, and perspectives. This expression is also featured in a song by leading folk musician Koo Nimo, who often weaves tales of traditional pasts through his Palm-wine and Highlife rhythms.

What transatlantic journeys have their memories and stories survived?

From this point of origin, Larry Amponsah searches for his connections to, and understandings of, Black British history, starting from the vibrant cacophony of Saturday’s Golborne Road Market and the cosmopolitanism pulsing through Greater London. From the unsung heroes of black servicemen during the World Wars to Windrush Generation immigrants starting small local businesses – what transatlantic journeys have their memories and stories survived?
Through the cracks of Larry Amponsah’s expressions we can find secret histories of Notting Hill throughout the ages, such as the radicalised early 90s when Golborne Road was a hotbed for ideas, mixing cultures, and challenging morality. If you look or listen carefully when inside the artist’s immersive installation, you may catch sly exchanges about the Profumo Affair political scandal, critiques of the notoriously exploitative landlord coining the term “Rachmanism”, or traces of London’s underground reggae history in which the Caribbean, Africa, and UK were interconnected through vibrant cultural resonances.

With the spirit of “When a Stone Cracks, We Don’t Stitch” in his heart, Amponsah seeks to embrace the transformative disjunctions of histories – of a street, a neighbourhood, a community, a country, a translocal identity – through another, more recent, proverb that guides him: “I will have spent my life trying to understand the function of remembering, which is not the opposite of forgetting, but rather its lining. We do not remember. We rewrite memory much as history is rewritten. How can one remember thirst?”(Chris Marker, French filmmaker)

50 Golborne

2nd October – 15th November 2019

50 Golborne Road

London, United Kingdom

W10 5PR

The post Larry Amponsah’ first solo show in the UK appeared first on Artskop.

Bringing together 45 galleries from 19 countries, 1-54 will be presenting 16 galleries from Africa and over 140 artists of both emerging and established profile. 15 galleries will be welcomed to the London fair for the first time including, Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, Claire Oliver Gallery, espace d’art contemporain 14N 61W, Galerie Ernst Hilger, Galleria Anna Marra, Guns & Rain, The Hole, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Luce Gallery, Mindy Solomon Gallery, Nil Gallery, Sakhile & Me, SMITH, Tabari Art Space and Ubuntu Art Gallery.

Building on the success of the expanded programme of non-profit Special Projects, 1-54 will once again present a number of collateral projects, including including Mary Sibande’s first solo exhibition in the UK, I Came Apart at the Seams presented in partnership with Somerset House running through the 7 January 2020. 1-54 is also proud to renew the partnership with the Kamel Lazaar Foundation (KLF) to commission a large-scale installation in The Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court at Somerset House.

Curated for the first time by curator Kerryn Greenberg, Head of International Collection Exhibitions at Tate, 1-54 FORUM returns over four afternoons. Dedicated to the late Nigerian curator Bisi Silva, the programme will convene leading cultural practitioners to discuss the questions at the core of Silva’s practice.

Full list of exhibitors

• 50 Golborne (London, United Kingdom)
• Addis Fine Art (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)
• AFRONOVA GALLERY (Johannesburg, SouthAfrica)
• AGorgi (Tunis,Tunisia)
• Catinca Tabacaru Gallery (New York, USA)
• Circle Art Gallery (Nairobi,Kenya)
• Clare Oliver Gallery (New York, USA)
• Ed Cross Fine Art (London, United Kingdom)
• espace d’art contemporain 14N 61W (Fort de France, Martinique)
• Galerie Anne de Villepoix (Paris, France)
• Galerie Cécile Fakhoury (Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire / Dakar, Senegal)
• Galerie Ernst Hilger (Vienna, Austria)
• Galleria Anna Marra (Rome, Italy)
• Gallery 1957 (Accra, Ghana)
• Gallery Nosco (Marseille, France)
• Guns & Rain (Johannesburg, South Africa)
• The Hole (New York, USA)
• HUBERTY & BREYNE GALLERY (Paris, France / Brussels, Belgium)
• Jack Bell Gallery (London, United Kingdom)
• James Cohan (New York, USA)
• Kalashnikovv Gallery (Johannesburg, South Africa)
• Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery (London, United Kingdom)
• L’Atelier 21 (Casablanca, Morocco)
• Lawrie Shabibi Gallery (Dubai, UAE)
• Loft Art Gallery (Casablanca, Morocco)
• Luce Gallery (Turin, Italy)
• MAGNIN-A (Paris, France)
• Mashrabia Gallery (Cairo, Egypt)
• Mindy Solomon Gallery (Miami, USA)
• Nil Gallery (Paris, France)
• October Gallery (London, United Kingdom)
• Primo Marella Gallery (Milan, Italy)
• Sakhile & Me (Frankfurt, Germany)
• Selma Feriani Gallery (Tunis, Tunisia)
• SMAC (Stellenbosch / Cape Town / Johannesburg, South Africa)
• SMITH (Cape Town, South Africa)
• SMO Contemporary Art (Lagos,Nigeria)
• Sulger-Buel Gallery (London, United Kingdom)
• Tabari Art Space (Dubai, UAE)
• TAFETA (London,United Kingdom)
• Tiwani Contemporary (London, United Kingdom)
• Ubuntu Art Gallery (Cairo, Egypt)
• Vigo Gallery (London, United Kingdom)
• WHATIFTHEWORLD (Cape Town, South Africa)
• Yossi Milo Gallery (New York, USA)

1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair 

3-6 October 2019, Somerset House

London Somerset HouseStrand, London WC2R 1LA

The post Gallery list announced for the 7th edition of 1-54 london appeared first on Artskop.

Whirlwind’s Radiance is a group exhibition at 50 Golborne, featuring artists Willie Cole (b. Somerville, NJ, USA, 1955), Emo de Medeiros (b. Cotonou, Benin, 1979), Fatoumata Diabate (b. Bamako, Mali, 1980), Jakob Dwight (b. Mobile, Alabama, USA, 1977), Phyllis Galembo (b. New York, USA, 1952) and Leah Gordon (b. Ellesmere Port, UK, 1959), who explore in their work the notions of carnival and masquerade in Africa and its diaspora. 

The exhibition’s title references ‘Mass Man’, a poem by Derek Walcott in which he highlights the disjuncture between the joyful, festive celebration of carnival and a mindful remembrance of times of slavery. ‘But somewhere in that whirlwind’s radiance / a child, rigged like a bat, collapses, sobbing’. Indeed, the commercialised nature of carnivals globally has been increasingly accused of reducing profoundly important cultural and historical events to a ‘fetishized surplus value’ (Nagle 2005), a frequent criticism of London’s own Notting Hill Carnival which takes place every year in the gallery’s surroundings and with which this exhibition coincides. 

Out of the Whirlwind’s Radiance seeks to reveal the interests of contemporary artists in the notion of carnival and its inherent deeper meanings. The show focuses upon some of the various global manifestations of masquerade in carnival contexts as a marker of a potent relationship, both historic and contemporary, between African and diasporic cultures. Furthermore it intends not only to celebrate but also to actively contextualise Notting Hill Carnival within its own broad historical and global scope.

Kaleta : The body as the site of multiple discourses for ‘Sculpting history, memory, identity and culture’

Franco-Beninese Emo de Medeiros’ Guardian, a commanding and richly adorned masked figure inspired by the Beninese carnival practice of Kaleta, dramatically introduces the body as the site of multiple discourses for ‘sculpting history, memory, identity and culture’ (Irobi 2007), the primary mode of cultural transmission between African and diasporic cultures (Ibid.). Brought by African-born slaves returning from Brazil to Ouidah, Benin, following the Malê slave revolt of 1875, Kaleta results from such phenomenological dialogue between African and diasporic cultures, and resembles a mix of Beninese Zangbeto masquerade, European and Brazilian carnival, and American Halloween.

De Medeiros’ piece is a physical manifestation of creolized cultural identities following slavery, echoing Irobi’s analysis of West Africa’s historic ability ‘to create hybridised and syncretised cultic and popular culture that point to sophistication, complexity and resilience’ as expressed through carnival traditions over the world. Through his choice of materials, Guardian demonstrates the artist’s confidence in African culture continuing in this syncretic and sophisticated vein while navigating a increasingly globalised world: second-hand European trousers, a costume made from recycled plastic packaging, and a mass-produced Chinese mask.

The transformative power of full-body masquerade in Africa and its diaspora through her portrait photography

Over the last thirty years, American artist Phyllis Galembo has been investigating the transformative power of full-body masquerade in Africa and its diaspora through her portrait photography. Through the systematic placement of her richly costumed sitters in front of neutral backgrounds such as painted walls and trees, the resulting sumptuous photographs are both revelatory and celebratory. The titles of the works ‘Mami Wata’ and ‘Lasirene’ are different names for the mermaid spirit prominent across Central – West Africa and Haiti respectively. These pieces demonstrate the co-evolution of religion and culture in West Africa and the Caribbean, and the importance of masquerade on both sides of the Atlantic. The mermaid spirit is usually accompanied by a large serpent who sits upon her shoulders, which can be seen in both works: in the headpiece of the Mami Wata masquerader and around the neck of the Lasirene carnival performer. Galembo’s third work, ‘Grange Hill Jonkonnu’ shows a Jamaican participant of Jonkonnu, a masquerade practice which was initially performed on the three holidays allowed to enslaved Africans in the English-speaking Caribbean: Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

Leah Gordon explores ‘spaces between documentation, public memory and the phantasmic theatre of the historic imagination’

Also using photography as her main medium, Leah Gordon – who lives between Haiti and UK – explores ‘spaces between documentation, public memory and the phantasmic theatre of the historic imagination’ (Beasley 2013). The exhibition features two of her signature black and white pieces in which the masqueraded subjects look back at the viewer in a direct, almost confrontational manner. ‘Lanse Kòd’, (Rope Throwers) features performers wearing horns, whose bodies are covered in greasy wet paint. This practice takes root in carnivals across the Caribbean and is prevalent at Notting Hill Carnival: participants echo the actions of enslaved Africans who covered their bodies with molasses, a by-product of the sugar cane grown in the plantations where they were forced to work. Masqueraders act out threatening others with ropes and chains, simultaneously echoing the violent actions of slave owners and the performances of the slaves, who in protest painted their bodies in the very product they were made to cultivate without remuneration.

Gordon’s other work, ‘Chal Oska’, shows another recurrent masquerade theme in Haitian carnival, which, unlike the practice pictured in ‘Lanse Kòd’, is specific to Haiti. The masquerader’s mouth mask and hat satirize the appearance of the military commander Charles Oscar, who in 1915 was in charge of the police in Jacmel and was known to have killed over one hundred political prisoners resident in the local jail. Seen together, Gordon’s works both show how carnival traditions can develop locally and globally, while demonstrating how masquerade in carnival contexts can be performances which demand social justice.

The body is considered as a site of resistance with Willie Cole

‘Men of Iron’ by New York based artist Willie Cole bridges the potential for disjuncture between contemporary carnival celebrations and the memorialisation of its own historical context through his innovative usage of imagery. Here again the body is considered as a site of resistance: In this work Cole redefines what Malcolm X called ‘the house negro’ as a warrior rather than a domesticated and docile slave, and uses household irons as a visual metaphor for the well-known diagrams of slave ships, presenting them in masquerade formation on the human body. The piece simultaneously references the painful branding inflicted upon slaves as well as the many human lives that were exchanged for consumer goods and raw materials, while nodding towards our contemporary devotion to domestic products. Cole uses masquerade here to position the body again as a site of resistance in the context of postcolonial domesticity, furthermore allowing the viewer to remember that carnival in its contemporary form is a synthesis of cultures, taking root in traditions of both the oppressed and their oppressors, and the Old and New Worlds.

Fatoumata Diabate demonstrates our sacred interconnectedness to objects, animals, trees and nature

Fatoumata Diabate is the youngest artist featured in this exhibition. Her works in this show are part of her photographic series, ‘Man as Object’ and ‘Man as Animal’, which together are inspired by fables heard in her childhood and which appear in her dreams. Rather than depicting the body as a site of resistance, Diabate uses masquerade to present her sitters as a prompt for a personal and reflective introspection, while simultaneously referencing Mali’s oral culture and storytelling traditions. She considers her works to symbolise the connection between the past and the future: the artist thinks of each piece as a dreamlike tale not yet lived, and which demonstrates our sacred interconnectedness to objects, animals, trees and nature. The masks worn in each series are frequently made by the models themselves, and are deliberately fashioned from waste materials, positioning Diabate’s masquerade practice firmly outside of pre-existing customs and beliefs.

50 Golborne is delighted to debut in the UK the work of American artist Jakob Dwight, who uses algorithms to generate unique patterns which reference mask imagery. The video in this exhibition is part of the larger ‘Autonomous Prism’ collection which recently showed at Brooklyn Museum in the group show, Disguise: Masks and Global African Art. Through his placement of digital images within silhouettes of African masks originally found in Seattle Art Museum, the works examine the concept and form of the mask and the decontextualization of African artefacts when shown in museum settings, highlighting the necessarily live performative nature of masquerade.

Through the visual discrepancies and evolutions between each digital image in the Autonomous Prism series, Dwight uses masquerade to question the nature of identity: are we the same from moment to moment? The vibrant, shimmering and constantly morphing shapes in this piece echo the notion of a radiant whirlwind, but a thoughtful and expansive departure from Walcott’s critical use of the term.

References

Beasley, M., 2013, ‘The Performance of Possibilities’, online, <http://myronbeasley.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/KanavalEssay.pdf>. Irobi, E., 2007, ‘What They Came with: Carnival and the Persistence of African Performance Aesthetics in the Diaspora’, Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 37, No. 6, pp. 896-913. Nagle, J., 2005, ‘Ambivalence and Alterity’, Global Studies in Culture and Power, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 563-583

Out of the Whirlwind’s Radiance

50 Golborne

23rd August to 29th September 2018

Private view 13th September 6 – 8.30pm

50 Golborne Road

London, United Kingdom

W10 5PR

The post Out of the Whirlwind’s Radiance appeared first on Artskop.