Author: The Network
The Network brings together a group of artistic professionals working in a range of disciplines, media and practices, which have come together in order to celebrate, question and intrinsically promote the developments of such practices.
Sounding in, sounding out…
Led by artist Evan Ifekoya in collaboration with Network11
This artist-led gathering presents a series of sound interventions, drawing on Lubaina Himid’s personal investigation into the ‘the space we can’t see’. Exploring strategies of visibility and invisibility through Édouard Glissant’s suggestion that ‘we clamor for the right to opacity for everyone’; this event delves into the material conditions of blackness that permeate this collective of artists’ work, threads of which can be traced back to the work of Lubaina Himid.
The event starts with presentations outside of the gallery space leading into part two which takes place within the exhibition, in dialogue with specific works which reframe histories, complicating well established narratives.
During this event, Matatu Kitchen are serving their signature Mandazi doughnuts and East African Tacos.
Event schedule
Part one: (Spike Associates space)
4–4.15pm Evan Ifekoya – Introduction
4.15–4.45pm Kamile Ofoeme – Shifting Boundaries
4.45–5.30pm Sheperd Manyika – ‘Now that’s what I call music 16’
5.30–6pm Beverley Bennett ‘Echo’
6–6.15pm Break
Part two: (In the gallery, in dialogue with Lubaina Himid’s work)
6.30–6.45 Jade Montserrat – ‘No Need for clothing’
6.45–7.30 Larry Achiampong – ‘Ph03nix Rising: The Mogya Project’
7.30–8.15pm Ima-Abasi Okon and Junior Boakye-Yiadom – ‘Cut glass tumblers’
8.15–9pm – Break
9–10pm Listening session / round-up of the day facilitated by Evan Ifekoya
Recommended reading:
– Mapping, A Decade of Black Women Artists 1980 -1990 by Lubaina Himid, in Passion Discourse on Black Womens Creativity
– Poetics of Relation by Édouard Glissant, translated by Betsy Wing
– “I Am I Be”: The Subject of Sonic Afro-modernity by Alexander G. Weheliye
Connected events:
Sounding in, sounding out is a sister-event with She Who Writes Herstory Rewrites History at Modern Art Oxford on Saturday 18 February 2017, 11am–3pm. Join artists and academics for a thought-provoking day focussed on equality in art education, with talks from Professor Griselda Pollock, Marlene Smith and Dr. Ella S Mills and an active conversation facilitated by David ‘Stickman’ Higgins. The event will be live streamed.
On 17–18 March 2017 a third Creative Gathering will take place at Nottingham Contemporary as part of the Lubaina Himid programme.
Network 11
Network11 is a group of black diaspora art practitioners working in a range of disciplines, media and practices, coming together to celebrate, question + promote developments of art practices. Members participating in this event include Larry Achiampong, Beverley Bennett, Junior Boakye-Yiadom, Shepard Manyika, Jade Montserrat, Ima-Abasi Okon and Kamile Ofoeme.
https://ntwrk11.wordpress.com/
Evan Ifekoya
Evan Ifekoya’s current work investigates the possibility of an erotic and poetic occupation using film, performative writing and sound, focused on co-authored, intimate forms of knowledge production and the radical potential of spectacle. Their ongoing project ‘A Score, A Groove, A Phantom’ explores archives of blackness, sociality and inheritance as they diffract through queer nightlife and trauma in the present moment.
Ifekoya’s recent work has been presented at: New Art Exchange, Nottingham; Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridgeshire; Transmission Gallery, Glasgow; Serpentine Galleries, London; and Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town (2016). Recent performances include Jerwood Space, London and Whitstable Biennial 2016.
Upcoming exhibitions include All Channels Open at Wysing Arts Centre and Lavender Menace (working title, solo) at Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh. Collaborative projects include Collective Creativity: Critical reflections into QTIPOC creative practice and Network11.
Shifting Boundaries (lecture performance) Feb 2017
24/02/17 – 18:30 – 20:00
Goldsmiths university – RHB 144
The Shifting Boundaries lecture performance is aimed at looking at pedagogical structures and the ways in which knowledge is produced and disseminated.
In an attempt to bring some real sh*t to the table, Ofoeme considers the fleeting representations of black masculinity in popular culture and their possibility to negate stereotypes. Using the rapper Young Thug, a.k.a Jeffery as a reference point, Ofoeme will highlight the trajectory of self-creation and speculative fiction in African-diasporic culture, present in the work of creatives such as Sun Ra, Fela Kuti, Erykah Badu, Andre 3000 and Janelle Monae.
Other aspects of the performance will draw links between the black voice in western history, self-creation in cyber space, vocal contouring and the phenomenon of “mumble rap”.
Kamile Ofoeme’s multi-disciplinary practice uses visual, audio and performative means to interrogate notions of perception, race and identity.
Optional readings:
– Stuart Hall – What is ‘Black’ in Black Popular Culture?
– Simone Verginia Ejawa Aziga – On Black Style: Black style in the blogosphere.
An audio recording can be heard here:
‘Sonorous’: The Art Assassins & Network 11
Peer Forum Session #6: Mixtape Misuse Commodity
Mixtape Misuse Commodity
Wednesday 25h May 2016 | 630 – 9pm
To wrap up Network 11’s Peer Forum at Cubit, Shepherd Manyika and Ima-Abasi Okon will each present the manifold themes that inform their practice, including works in progress
‘MIXTAPE MISUSE COMMODITY’ will present the artists recent interactions with constructions of black masculinity with a focus on African American culture, positions of misuse, the sublime as a delimiting device, legitimising platforms and the performance of language.
(GOLD, CLAP, ROMANCE, CALL, RESPONSE, ASPIRATION, FAILURE, DELIVERY, WORD-WORD-WORD, WEIGHT, GESTURE, WORD-WORD-WORD, PRODUCT, BOOTY, ARRIVAL, COLLABORATION, SYSTEMS, INVESTMENT, HOME, HOME FROM HOME, FAMILY, YOURS, MINE, OURS, EXPORT, WORD-WORD-WORD, EMBODIMENT, CHOP, CHOppED, CHOPS, SLICK, BUY, SELL, TO-LET, OPTICS, MARKERS, STONE, KNOWLEDGE, WORD-WORD-WORD, STOCK, PEDIGREE, BASS, 12-BAR, REVIVAL, WORD-WORD-WORD, SLOOOOOOOOOW) [sic]
Peer Forum Session #5: DR SATAN’S ECHO CHAMBER
Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom in Skype conversation with Louis Chude-Sokei discussing his essay “Dr Satan’s Echo Chamber: Reggae, Technology and Diaspora Process” and his most recently released book ‘The Sound of Culture: Diaspora and Black Technopoetics’
Louis Chude-Sokei is a Nigerian-Jamaican-American scholar and writer. His work includes the monograph “Dr. Satan’s Echo Chamber: Reggae, Technology and the Diaspora Process,” the award-winning critical work “The Last Darky” and the most recent book, “The Sound of Culture: Diaspora and Black Technopoetics.” He currently teaches at the University of Washington, Seattle and is Editor-In-Chief of the newly revamped The Black Scholar, one of the oldest and most influential journals of Black thought in the U.S.
Peer Forum Session #4: THE HOOK
Peer Forum Session #3: ART/LIFE
Peer Forum Session #2: A Score, A Groove, A Phantom
A score, a groove, a phantom @ Cubitt Peer Forum presents Evan Ifekoya’s work in progress as well as research ranging from the dance floor and its archives to Yoruba and other West African mourning traditions. The project utilises the body in life and death as material to investigate the erotic potential of those experiences as political formation. To paraphrase Peggy Phelan – can the affective outline of what we have lost bring us closer to the bodies we might still want to touch?
For the second part of the session, Ifekoya will be in conversation with Oakland based DJ 8ulentina, who has also prepared a mix for the occasion.
DJ 8ulentina’s name is inspired by Bulent Ersoy, a legendary transgender Turkish singer. For 8ulentina, DJing is about creating a personal archive that tells a story; it can take the form of a Turkish trance remix, an Egyptian Mahraganat track, or a sad R&B track. Keeping it feminine, fast, and worldly.
Peer Forum Session #1: An Introduction by Osei Bonsu
Network11 are proud to announce the first of 6 sessions for the Cubitt Galleries PEER Forum bursary. Over the next 6 months we will be in conversation with an invited selection of artists, curators and cultural producers to discuss various aspects of creative practice.
The first session kicks off on Thursday 17th December, with Curator, Osei Bonsu conducting the introductory session connecting The trajectory of Black British artists today and its importance to the Art scene.
Osei Bonsu is a British-Ghanaian curator and writer based in London. His writing has been included in a number of museum and exhibition catalogues including the 56th Venice Biennial Exhibition and Milan EXPO “Arts and Food” at La Triennale di Milano. He is the founding director of CRANE, and has developed a number of projects focused on international art, including “Pangea II: New Art from Africa and Latin America” (Saatchi Gallery, 2015) and 1-54 Art Fair (2013 – 14). He advises private and not-for-profit arts organizations and contributes to publications such as New African, NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art, Mousse Magazine, and Art Review among others.
Cubitt is an artist-led organisation based in Islington, London. Founded by a group of artists in 1991, Cubitt consists of a non-profit gallery, 32 artist studios and a locally-focused education programme.
For more information on the PEER Forum project, please visit the Artquest website.
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