What the Mountain Has Seen: the archive in the vitrine

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What the Mountain Has Seen: the archive in the vitrine
A talk by Dr Christine Eyene

Join us at the Exhibition Research Lab Gallery for a talk by Dr Christine Eyene who will discuss her research on the links between Liverpool’s maritime history, colonisation, economic botany, and practices of extraction in rural Cameroon.

Focusing on reproductions of archival material contained in the vitrine displayed in the exhibition What the Mountain Has Seen, Dr Eyene will retrace the journey of American missionaries who travelled to West and Central Africa in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries via Liverpool, in their mission to colonise and Christianise parts of the African continent.

Taking as point of departure her paternal village of Bikoka (Lolodorf), in the South province of Cameroon, Eyene will examine archive photographs, stamps, postcards, medallions, timetables of Liverpool shipping companies, and more, to uncover untold chapters of interdependent German, American, French, and British colonial endeavours.

What the Mountain Has Seen refers to Mount Mbanga, a natural landmark both present in colonial images of Lolodorf and contemporary artworks. The exhibition posits the mountain as witness to the history of the land and its peoples. The talk will also delve into the artworks in the exhibition created by Cameroonian artists Yvon Ngassam, Jean David Nkot and Boris Nzebo, who address the impact of these histories across time. It will also explore the practice of British artists Joy Gregory, Shiraz Bayjoo and Freya Tewelde who expand on these narratives in the context of the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, and East Africa.

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Dr Christine Eyene is Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Art and Co-Director of the Exhibition Research Lab at Liverpool John Moores University, and Research Curator at Tate Liverpool. She teaches Exhibition Histories and curatorial practices from an African and Diasporic perspective. From 2012 to 2022, she worked with Professor Lubaina Himid CBE RA on Making Histories Visible, an interdisciplinary visual arts research project then based at the University of Central Lancashire.

Her most recent exhibitions are George Hallett: Home and Exile, Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière, Paris (19 March – 17 May 2025), What the Mountain Has Seen, ERL Gallery, and The Plant the Stowed Away, Tate Liverpool + RIBA North (6 Feb – 11 May 2025). Her latest essays include: ‘Where an artist finds freedom’ in Alicia Knock (ed.), ‘Paris Noir: Artistic circulations and anti-colonial resistance, 1950 – 2000’. Paris: Centre Pompidou, 2025; ‘South African Exile and Diasporic Cultural Transmission’ in Ntshepe Tsekere Bopape and Alexandre Quoi (ed.), Globalisto – A Philosophy in Flux – Acts of an Imbizo. Paris: Presses du Réel, 2024.

In 2024, Dr Eyene joined the Artistic Council of Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco. She is also member of the Scientific Committee of the exhibition ‘Paris noir’ (19 March – 30 June 2025) curated by Alicia Knock at Centre Pompidou, Paris.

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What the Mountain Has Seen: the archive in the vitrine
A talk by Dr Christine Eyene

Thursday 1 May, 18.30-20.00

Free event
Book your place here.

Exhibition Research Lab Gallery
John Lennon Art and Design Building
Liverpool John Moores University
2 Duckinfield Street
Liverpool L3 5RD

What the Mountain Has Seen is on until 31 October 2025. This exhibition coincides with The Plant that Stowed Away, on view at Tate Liverpool + RIBA North until 11 May 2025.

This event is supported by IAT – The Institute of Art and Technology, Liverpool School of Art and Design, Liverpool John Moores University.