Somerset House presents We Are History, a new group exhibition offering a different perspective on humanity's impact on the planet by tracing the complex interrelations between today’s climate crisis and legacies of colonialism.
The exhibition, which opens to coincide with 1-54 Contemporary
African Art Fair, spotlights the works of 11 artists with personal connections
to countries in the Caribbean, South America and Africa, bringing to the fore
the perspectives of their communities, not as an afterthought in climate
debates, but as the source of resonant ideas and imagery related to social and
environmental justice.
Curated by writer Ekow Eshun, and showcasing photography, prints,
textile, installation and video, We Are History presents works which are moving,
lyrical and thought-provoking, capturing nature as a place of both beauty and
fragility. Featuring artists Alberta Whittle, Allora & Calzadilla, Carolina
Caycedo, Louis Henderson, Malala Andrialavidrazana, Mazenett Quiroga, Otobong
Nkanga, Zineb Sedira and a newly commissioned work by multidisciplinary artist
Shiraz Bayjoo, the exhibition interrogates the environmental issues facing the
southern hemisphere by looking to the past and drawing important insight from
the cultural practices and knowledge systems of indigenous peoples.
Collectively, the exhibition’s contributors are looking to expand
the common narrative around climate change, a subject which is often linked to
the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the West. We Are History invites
visitors to look further back in time, exploring significant periods of change
such as the 18th century colonial era, which saw plantation agriculture and the
forced mass migration of people through slavery reshaping lives and landscapes
on a global scale.
We Are History trailer
The artworks in We Are
History are lyrical, moving and historically charged. They seek to address
climate crisis, not directly or didactically, but with a poetry and nuance that
expands the visual framework we bring to the subject. By preferencing
perspectives from the global South, the exhibition also identifies
environmental change as a racial process with deep roots in colonial history.
https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/we-are-history
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