Maria Amidu, Two Exhibitions – Up to date Artwork Society

Maria Amidu, residing in concern of quicksand

The Nunnery Gallery in partnership with Tower Hamlets Native Historical past Library & Archives, Bow
3 March – 21 Might 2023

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Maria Amidu, Untitled: an exhibition of works in progress

Iniva, Chelsea
14 February – 28 April 2023

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Dwelling in concern of quicksand explores the fragmentary nature of reminiscence in relation to a fragile expertise of residence. Hosted throughout two venues – The Nunnery Gallery, a non-for-profit artwork house in East London and close by Tower Hamlets Native Historical past Library & Archives – Maria Amidu’s first solo-exhibition pays particular consideration to what’s hidden, obscured, silenced or unstated.

The centre-piece air, 2022, displayed within the gallery’s nave, is a restricted version print work. The poetic artist e-book covers 3 elements of her life. It begins by non-chronologically tracing the artist’s fragmented reminiscences of early childhood and life on Lincoln Property – council housing inside strolling distance from the gallery by way of to her life rising up in state care in Bexhill-on-Sea, mapping the affect of these experiences on her maturity life. The textual content for this work was developed over 25 years and is juxtaposed by copies of archival materials in regards to the historical past and group of Lincoln Property. The corresponding sound set up there isn’t a sticking plaster for this gaping wound, 2021, might be listened to with headphones while studying the e-book.

One of the hanging options of the exhibition on the Nunnery are the indigo-coloured painted partitions, a bespoke tone of blue Amidu developed with Dulux Paints. The color with the title Sunday evening, 2022, encapsulates the artworks within the present and elegantly connects the gallery’s adjoining rooms. Indigo additionally options in air by way of the endpapers and the hand-dyed ribbon. Amidu’s use of blue  might be seen as a reference to the maternal aspect of her household, initially from Abeokuta, Nigeria — famend for its indigo dying custom.

The primary gallery house showcases an intimate text-based porcelain and paper set up in a glass vitrine, titled issues I need to know and likewise don’t need to share, 2021. It consists of unedited and unfiltered expressions of emotions seemingly imprinted onto scraps of paper by spontaneously hitting typewriter keys, generally with pressure.

The movie 1973, 2022, is a poetic assemblage of archival imagery, blurred pictures of seascapes and seashores, pictures of the artist as a toddler, juxtaposed by home scenes and underpinned by voices of various individuals repeating the identical narrative. Just like the textual content in air, 1973 additionally appears to grapple from an grownup’s perspective with the fragmented reminiscences of a life-changing second that Amidu skilled as a toddler by trying again to her life rising up in East London, and later on the British coast.

General, the emotive works within the exhibition mirror on how every of us can battle to retrieve misplaced and fragmented reminiscences. There isn’t a set option to navigate this calm however highly effective multi-layered exhibition, leaving freedom and house for the viewer to make their very own interpretations and associations.

The exhibition continues a brief bus trip away in Mile Finish at Tower Hamlets Native Historical past Library & Archives with an archival show of historic data alongside some objects from the artist’s private archive and accompanied by a timeline documenting the event of the Property.

Concurrent to her present in East London, Amidu’s exhibition at Iniva, Untitled: an exhibition of works in progress by Maria Amidu curated by Hollie Douglas as a part of Future Gather, appears into what position writing performs in emotional expression. That includes a collection of works in progress it’s once more highlighting Amidu’s longstanding apply as a author and visible artist in addition to her curiosity in archives. Simply as residing in concern of quicksand, Untitled: an exhibition of works in progress by Maria Amidu at Iniva invitations the viewers to pause and mirror on what’s hidden, obscured and silenced.

Christine Takengny
Senior Curator

181 Bow Rd, Bow, London E3 2SJ
Exhibition open till 21 Might 2023
Gallery opening instances: Tuesday to Sunday 10.00 – 16.00

16 John Islip St, London SW1P 4JU
Exhibition open till 28 April 2023
Gallery opening instances: Monday to Friday 9.30 – 17.30