Constellations – Part 1: Figures On Earth & Beyond

Arte

Gallery 1957, 1 Hyde Park Gate, London, Greater London, SW7 5EW, United Kingdom

14/03/2024 - 25/02/2024

London, 24 January 2024 – Gallery 1957 is proud to present its sister-city exhibition project Constellations, opening in London with Part 1: Figures on Earth & Beyond on 14 March. Coinciding with the gallery’s 8-year anniversary, this multimedia exhibition project brings together emerging and established artists from within the gallery’s programme and beyond, celebrating the creative communities burgeoning in Ghana and the UK.

Artists participating in this group show include those collaborating with the gallery for the first time; Adelaide Damoah, Alberta Whittle, Andrew Pierre Hart, Ayesha Feisal, Ayomide Tejuoso (Plantation), Denyse Gawu-Mensah, Henry Hussey, Lisa C Soto, Phoebe Boswell, Rashaad Newsome, and Sarah Meyohas, as well as long-term collaborators and artists in residence; Johannes Phokela, Larry Amponsah, Yaa Asantewaa Art Prize winner Lois Selasie Arde-Acquah, Modupeola Fadugba, and Zak Ové.

Co-curated by independent curator Katherine Finerty, curator and artist Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson, and Compound House Gallery founder Nuna Adisenu-Doe, Constellations celebrates the cultural exchange between London and Accra’s creative ecosystems with artists, curators, writers, and filmmakers. It considers how their interconnectivity breaks the boundaries of time and geography, inviting artists to respond to the unique natural and artificial habitats of both sites whilst considering elements that transcend them.

In line with ecofeminist scholar Donna Haraway , Constellations –Part 1: Figures on Earth & Beyond rejects the concept of the Anthropocene Epoch, based on the idea that human activity is the dominant influence on the Earth’s climate and environment in the current geological age. The exhibition concept challenges our human inclination to centre ourselves and instead repositions humans as part of a larger ecosystem, critically examining human-made structures of power, memory, and agency within their wider environments through concepts of art history, spirituality, technology, and science fiction.

The show includes specially commissioned works from artists Phoebe Boswell, Adelaide Damoah, Andrew Pierre Hart, and Denyse Gawu-Mensah, whilst artists Lois Selasie Arde-Acquah, Larry Amponsah, Modupeola Fadugba, Henry Hussey, and Ayomide Tejuoso (Plantation) have adapted new and previous works in line with the exhibition concept.