Exhibitions

The Ghost in the Machine will be on view online in Montague Contemporary website from May 7 to June 1, 2020

“The Ghost in the Machine” introduces the work of contemporary Kenyan artists, Peterson Kamwathi, Florence Wangui, and Elias Mung’ora, who challenge the idea of hierarchy and instead imagine their work through the lens of “holonarchy”: whereby everything in the universe is simultaneously both a whole and a part. Every “holon” is torn between two impulses – to be an individual and to become part of something bigger and more communal.  The show’s theme, inspired by Arthur Koestler’s 1967 novel The Ghost In the Machine and building on philosopher Gilbert Ryle’s genesis of the term, pulls together three distinct views on what it means to be an individual, to be part of a collective, and the tension between the two.

Yannis Davy Guibinga will be on view online in African Arty website from April 25 to June 25, 2020

Yannis Guibinga’s portrait photography is a documentation of a new generation of Africans, unapologetically embracing their many identities and cultures in the face of globalization and Western cultural imperialism. His work also focuses on highlighting the diversity of African identities, as well as how these identities are created through the intersection of different factors such as gender, culture and socioeconomic status. By letting each image tell a different story and illustrate a unique experience, point of view and perspective, Yannis Davy Guibinga with colours, shapes and shadows creates a world of powerful, beautiful and dignified Africans regardless of gender performance, class or sexual orientation.

I Hope This Finds You Well will be on view online in POLARTICS, Lagos, Nigeria from May 9 to June 7, 2020

“I Hope This Finds You Well” is a joint exhibition of ruminative works by Adeoluwa Oluwajoba and Femi Johnson. They offer a reflection of their minds as they grasp the concept of stillness and isolation in a changing world. Space plays a central role, acting as both stimulus and subject matter. Adeoluwa Oluwajoba is interested in utilising the male body as a site of enquiry into socio-political, cultural and heteronormative (mis)conceptions whilst exploring the notion of shared living and the negotiated space. Femi Johnson engages with the external as he captures vast expanses of Lagos, the sprawling economic capital of Nigeria, as it comes to an unfamiliar halt. He shoots both the familiar and the unfamiliar, sometimes offering a unique window from forgotten spaces. These spaces become the observer as they look upon a changing city.

Screenings

Stories of Our Lives by Nest Collective will be on view online at Institute for Creative Arts (ICA), South Africa on May 22, 2020

The screening will take place on the ICA Stories of Our Lives Film Screening Facebook Page. The screening will be followed by a live Q&A chaired by ICA Director Jay Pather and featuring Stories of Our Lives Director Jim Chuchu and screenwriter Njoki Ngumi, as well as artist and theatre-maker Mwenya Kabwe, and arts journalist Carl Collison. Stories of Our Lives is a series of five vignettes – ‘Ask Me Nicely’, ‘Run’, ‘Athman’, ‘Duet’ and ‘Each Night I Dream’ –  fictionalized renderings of personal stories collected from persons identifying as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex in Kenya, during the Stories of Our Lives project. This film screening event forms part of a broader project, The Feminine and the Foreign, which is a collaboration between the Nest Collective, the London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT, London) and the ICA.

Shiraz Bayjoo: Searching for Libertalia will be on view at Ed Cross Fine Art website from May 6 to June 3, 2020

Searching for Libertalia explores Madagascar’s history of piracy with the story of the fictional hero-like figure of Captain Misson, slave trading by the French East India Company throughout the 17th to 19th century, and the Malagasy fight for independence from France’s Vichy government during the Second World War. The interlinking between these distinct narratives reveals the repetitive nature of history. Searching for Libertalia underlines liberation and anti-colonial movements in African post-colonies and their relation to contemporary questions of race and identity.