eye.on.art

This month concludes a season of exhibitions for eye.on.art, with All Of Us Have A Sense Of Rhythm, the eighth edition of David Roberts Art Foundation Curators’ Series closing Saturday 1^st Aug with a tour by curator Christine Eyene at 4pm. An exhibition exploring notions of rhythm through visual arts, poetry, sound, music and dance, the project also includes a tracklist with music and sound pieces that have informed its curatorial concept. Listen to the latest contribution by S/QU/NC/R highlighting rhythmic patterns across diverse music practices.

Described by artist and writer Salomé Voegelin as “a spacious show that embraces different cultures and rhythms… to claim a future present of plural beats” (The Wire, issue 378, August 2015), All Of Us Have A Sense Of Rhythm included a number of public events among which An Evening of Live Music by artists Larry Achiampong, Julien Bayle and Evan Ifekoya. The event took place in the new Space For Performance and Education to be inaugurated by DRAF on 24^th Sept with commissioned performances by artist Alex Baczynski-Jenkins and the UK premiere of choreographer Stina Nyberg’s Splendour, 2014.

The British Museum has just unveiled Moko Jumbie sculptures by Zak Ové, one the artists featured in All Of Us Have A Sense of Rhythm. The sculptures will be on display in the museum’s Great Court until 13 September 2015. They will then be installed in the British Museum Africa Galleries, Ové becoming the first Caribbean artist to enter the collection.

At Framer Framed, Amsterdam, our exhibition Embodied Spaces is making way for Simuda Nyuma – Forward Ever Backward Never, curated by Robinah Nansubuga (UG) and Andrea Stultiens (NL). A group exhibition with works inspired by the archives of Ugandan chief and author Ham Mukasaukasa (ca. 1870 – 1956). 6 Aug – 6 Sept.

Another Ugandan connection, Zarina Bhimji: Jangbar at New Art Exchange, Nottingham. A new film and sound installation by British artist Zarina Bhimji, Jangbar (2012-2015), 35mm 26-minute film shot in Kenya, is an enquiry into image, light, object, the universal, the literal and the abstract. Until 27 Sept.
Also programmed at NAE, ‘Cultural Activism: How to Make Black Histories Visible’ with leading Black British artist Professor Lubaina Himid, activist-scholar Professor Celeste-Marie Bernier, and Nottingham-based Engagement Curator Bo Olawoye. An event organised by the Centre for Research in Race and Rights (C3R) at the University of Nottingham and New Art Exchange, chaired by Zoe Trodd (C3R).
Thur 20 Aug 6pm – 8pm.

Last spring NAE presented Residual: Traces of the Black Body curated by Christine Eyene as part of the 2015 edition of FORMAT International Photography Festival. Shane Solanksi, FORMAT 2015 artist in residence, responded to the exhibition with a short story in the form of a captivating video entitled Dust.

In the diary:

5 Aug: opening of Nancy Mteki: Honai, a solo exhibition at Njelele Art Station, Harare. In this new series, Mteki deals with self-exploration in a society that shames whilst simultaneously, sexualizing and objectifying the black female form.

11-13 Aug: Creative Time Summit at the Venice Biennale. Announced participants include: Teju Cole, Okwui Enwezor, Sarat Maharaj, Achille Mbembe, Ahmet Ögüt, Gaëtane Verna, to name but a few. The event also includes The Night Art Made the Future Visible, organised by curators Matteo Lucchetti and Judith Wielander from Visible Project.

… and in Japan:

Preston-based Rebecca Chesnay is one of the artists participating in Indefinable Cities, a collaboration between AirSpace Gallery (Stoke-on-Trent) and Tsukiyo to Syonen (Osaka) travelling to 5 cities in Japan. Exhibition curated by Koh Yoshida (JP) and Anna Francis (UK) to 23 Aug.

The Dojima River Biennale, Osaka, curated by Tom Trevor, until 30 Aug.

Mixed Bathing World – Beppu Contemporary Art Festival, with Sutapa Biswas among other artists, until Sept 2015.

Watch this space for more art news!