Kosisochukwu Nnebe in Conversation with Ibrahim Mahama
Join us on 29th November, for In Dialogue, a virtual conversation between current resident and 2023 G.A.S. Fellowship recipient Kosisochukwu Nnebe, and acclaimed Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama. Together, the artists will explore their art practices, the social dynamics and impacts that drive them. The conversation will delve into their focus on materiality—jute for Mahama and food for Nnebe—in uncovering colonial histories, as well as their innovative use of space to create community-centric art experiences. This event will offer deep insights into artistic expressions as spaces of transformation in the context of state failure and the importance of centering Black aliveness.
Since 2020, Kosi’s practice has been exploring the use of foodways as counter-archives of colonial histories. Where official archives inherently bring about issues of accessibility, control, and power, a turn to food as an archive opens up subaltern perspectives and approaches to memory-making with which to re-write history. Kosi activates these counter-archives through performance, employing what Saidiya Hartman calls critical fabulation – the combining of archival research with fictional narrative to fill gaps left in the archives and, in Kosi’s case, imagine alternate pasts, presents and futures.
This conversation promises to be engaging and insightful, offering deep reflections on how art can intersect with history, materiality, and community to foster meaningful cultural dialogue.
Event Details
Date: 29th November, 2024
Time: 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm WAT
Location: Online (Zoom Webiner)
This event is free, however it is essential to rsvp to receive the webiner link.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Kosisochukwu Nnebe
Kosisochukwu Nnebe is a Nigerian-Canadian conceptual artist and writer. Working across installation, lens-based media and sculpture, Nnebe engages with topics ranging from the politics of Black visibility, embodiment and spatiality to the use of foodways and language as counter-archives of colonial histories. Kosisochukwu’s work has been shown in exhibitions across Canada, including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Plug In ICA (Winnipeg) and the Art Museum of Toronto, as well as Hausen Gallery in New York, Green Space in Miami, and Tolhuistuin Cultural Centre in Amsterdam. She recently participated in a residency with Women Photographers International Archive (WOPHA) at El Espacio 23, a contemporary art space founded by Jorge M. Perez in Miami and was one of two inaugural artists for NLS Kingston’s Sustainable Sculpture Residency in Maroon Town, Jamaica. In 2025, she will participate in a year-long residency at the Jan van Eyck Academie in the Netherlands.
Headshot of Kosisochukwu Nnebe. Image courtesy of Vladim Vilain.
Ibrahim Mahama
Born and now residing in Tamale, Ghana, Mahama is an interdisciplinary artist working across installation, sculpture, and textiles. He is best known for his vast and ambitious interventions in public spaces, using jute sacks to address systems of value, global commerce, and the detritus of colonialism. Exhibtions include: Kunsthalle Osnabrück, Germany (2023); the 18th International Venice Architecture Biennale (2023) and the 35th Bienal de São Paulo (2023). Mahama’s most recent commission involved wrapping London’s Barbican Centre in 2,000 square meters of handwoven cloth. In 2024, Mahama received the inaugural Sam Gilliam Award from the Dia Art Foundation for the complexity, scale, and responsiveness of his work. Mahama is the founder of Red Clay Studio, the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Arts, and Nkrumah Volini, which he created to offer spaces for interrogation and artistic (ex)change in northern Ghana.
Headshot of Ibrahim Mahama. Image courtesy of Hadas.
Residency Project: Call for Family Photos
As part of her residency at the G.A.S. Farmhouse in Ijebu, Kosisochukwu Nnebe invites submissions of family photos to be archived/printed on banana leaves. This unique process seeks to cement familial ties to the land in Nigeria, particularly farmland, while celebrating relationships with nature and agriculture. Since 2023, Kosi has been working with chlorophyll printing to imprint archival images that explore the Black diaspora’s relationship with the natural environment. For this residency, she is gathering contemporary and archival images reflective of connections to land and agriculture across the African diaspora, spanning regions from Jamaica to Nigeria. These works will complement the historical images already part of her ongoing project.
Up to three selected photos will be showcased after the conversation, and later gifted to the participants.
Deadline: 24th November, 2024
By submitting your photograph, you confirm that you grant G.A.S. Foundation permission to use the photo for artistic purposes, including display during the residency presentation and related promotional materials.
This edition of the G.A.S. Fellowship Award is generously supported by Still Earth Holdings and our Residency Patrons.
