Efie Gallery is holding Elastic Visions, a collective exhibition showcasing the works of nine artists of African origin: Kesewa Aboah, Daëna Ladéesse, Kevin Claiborne, Larry W. Cook, Hugh Findletar, Enam Gbewonyo, Amina Kadous, Cedric Kouame (Gifted Mold Archive), and Fadekemi Ogunsanya. Curated by Faridah Folawiyo (a Nigerian curator with expertise in Middle Eastern studies), the show revolves around the concept of time as a fluid and expansive process that traverses limitations and preconceptions. One will be able to attend the exhibition until the 27th of May, 2024.
The artworks of Ghanaian-British artist and model Kesewa Aboah symbolise the fluidity inherent in the diaspora experience, where lives blend, cultures mix, and time loses its fixedness. This idea of movement is also present in multidisciplinary artist Daëna Ladéesse‘s works, in which she combines elements of female figures with sweeping brush strokes.
Conceptual artist Kevin Claiborne delves into identity, environment, and mental health within the African-American context. His art piece on view refrains from providing viewers with a predetermined context, fostering a more flexible reading. This way, it corresponds to the exhibition’s aim: to extend the idea of flexibility to the visitors as a way to encourage movement and thus, freedom.
Interdisciplinary artist and archivist Larry W. Cook produces works exploring club culture in the DMV (USA). He collects polaroids capturing the essence of this culture and uses them to create mixed-media canvases that often feature shimmering figures posing in front of nostalgic backdrops.
Artist and glass sculptor Hugh Findletar’s Flowerheadz series of glass sculptures displayed in the exhibition demonstrates that to be elastic is to find ways to fuse beauty, history, and utility. He ponders the plasticity of time by juxtaposing the permanence of the sculptural form with the ephemeral nature of flowers.
In her art, British-Ghanaian artist Enam Gbewonyo explores identity, womanhood, and humanity, employing textile and performance in her practice. Through the sculptures that she creates using tights, the artist contemplates the idea of weaving and interconnectedness.
Apart from focusing on such themes as identity and the fleeting nature of life, Cairo-based artist Amina Kadous examines the concept of personal and collective memory through photographs of the evolving landscape of Egypt. The exhibition presents selected works from her photo series A Crack in the Memory of My Memory and White Gold. In them, the artist reflects on how her ancestors’ memories interplay with her own.
Multimedia artist Cedric Kouame, known as Gifted Mold Archive, has always been mesmerised by the archives (photographs and fragments of film) he found in his hometown Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire). Transformed by the humid climate, time, and context, they become living objects. The artist’s works incorporate these photos obscured by a mould, bringing them to life again.
Nigerian artist Fadekemi Ogunsanya takes cues from numerous sources, such as Mughal manuscript painting, Yoruba mythology, and West African studio photography, to create her gouache paintings on paper characterised by a blue colour palette (a colour steeped in cosmic significance within Yoruba culture). Ogunsanya’s emotional artworks portray scenes concerned with the questions of love, joy, suffering, and loss.
To get more information about Elastic Visions, please visit the official web page of the exhibition.
You might also be interested in visiting The Casablanca Art School: Platforms and Patterns for a Postcolonial Avant-Garde (1962–1987). In addition, we would recommend attending Laal Collection Volume II, an exhibition at Total Arts.
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