In 2021 Baff Akoto was selected as an Artist in Focus through the Guest Projects Digital residency programme. Since receiving the award, BOM commissioned a new, immersive installation of his work LEAVE THE EDGES and the piece was subsequently included in the Whitechapel London Open.
A year on from the residency Tate Curatorial Assistant Hannah Marsh joins Baff Akoto for a conversation exploring themes of self, movement and memory in the context of migration and identity; concepts that are critical to both their practices. The discussion will draw thematic inspiration from LEAVE THE EDGES as well as Akoto’s multichannel work THE LOVE AND… THE MAGIC.
ABOUT HANNAH MARSH
Hannah Marsh completed a Master's Degree in, ‘Art, Philosophy and Cultural Institutions’ at the University of Liverpool. She subsequently took part in artist residencies with Art Core and the Art House, was awarded the FUAM art prize, and fulfilled roles of, Creative Facilitator (Modern Art Oxford), and Student Curatorial Assistant (Liverpool Biennial).
Hannah is a Curatorial Assistant at Tate, working in British Contemporary Art. She has worked on Hew Locke’s Commission, ‘The Procession’ as a Curatorial Assistant and co-curated Shawanda Corbett’s Art Now exhibition, ‘Let The Sunshine in’. She is currently working towards the forthcoming exhibition, ‘Women in Revolt!’ which opens in 2023.
Hannah is interested in and has produced research around the presence of Black Women in art history, feminist art, the Black British art movement, the experience of migration, and ideas around the self.
ABOUT BAFF AKOTO
Baff Akoto’s conceptual practice spans performance, sculpture and moving image. Most recently Akoto has been exploring the artistic potential of Virtual and Augmented Reality technologies in the hope that the digital revolution might avoid the same prejudices, exclusions and inequalities which arose from our industrial and colonial eras.
Akoto was awarded the Main Prize at the Aesthetica Art Prize 2022 for his moving image work LEAVE THE EDGES which was exhibited earlier this year in a solo installation at BOM in Birmingham, as part of The London Open triennial at Whitechapel Gallery and next will be included in the 13th Bamako Biennial of African Photography.
In July 2022 Akoto's poignant three-channel moving image work, THE LOVE AND… THE MAGIC was installed in the uniquely modernist space of Saint Boniface German Catholic Church as part of the Nocturnal Creatures art festival presented by Whitechapel Gallery. The installation featured performance interventions by acclaimed artists ESKA and Dave Okumu.
In September 2022 the BFI x CHANEL awarded Akoto their Filmmaker Award for Creative Audacity - decided by a jury including Tilda Swinton and Edward Enninful - for his moving image practice following his solo and group exhibitions and this summer's international theatrical release of the (Tribeca-winning and Independent Spirit nominated) feature film QUEEN OF GLORY from writer/director/actor Nana Mensah - on which Akoto served as producer with Kelley Robins-Hicks and Jamund Washington.
Photo Credit: Adamah Jalloh