AFRICAN ANCIENT FUTURES (2021) Three-Person Exhibition
"Contemporary visual artists Edward Lobo, Jamal Ademola, and Curtis Essel engage with Africa’s past, present, and future through a surrealist or magical realist lens Their works nurture transcontinental exchange, and engage the diaspora by highlighting ties across space and time. They invite the viewer to reflect not only on the stories, but on the materiality of digital media, its development and influence over time."
"Despite this rich exploration, the Black and African experience has largely been framed as a ‘move away’ or response to the western world. African and Black art deserves discourse beyond reactionary status. In Wanuri Kahiu’s essay ‘Ancestors of the Future’ she rightfully asks: “assuming here that we are all equal, what is the western world reacting to? Are they reacting to us?… As artists, does our creative impetus derive from challenging the dominant narrative or like artists elsewhere are we driven by the sheer need to create?”
- Curator & Artist -Ethel Ruth-Tawe
PRESS:
Bomb Magazine - Neema Githere & Ethel Tawe discuss African Ancient Futures
OkayAfrica : Jamal Ademola's exploration of Self identity through mixed media
For this exhibition, I showed five different works spanning photography and installation culminating into a film screening.
1) "I Forever Am" (2021) Three-Channel video installation on three 22 in CRT televisions, painted wood , reflective mirror cubes.
2) "Portrait of Dionne" "Portrait of Tifeny" "Wilted Flowers" C-Print, each 24 X 36in
"I Dreamed of Seeing Myself" Film Screening. 7:02 min, B&W, HD video
CREDITS
Curators : Ethel Ruth-Tawe
Gallery : (AWCA) A White Space Creative Agency , Lagos Nigeria
Artists : Edward Lobo , Jamal Ademola , Curtis Essel
Photography: Jimi Agboola , Ifebusola Oluwafunmilayo
Special Thanks: Antony Dike (AWCA) , Papa Omotayo
