Created during his residency at V.O Curations, Luton-based artist R.I.P. Germain's show is accompanied by an audio-guide, Plot Armour, produced with artist Deborah-Joyce Holman. Each work surfaces specific instances of Black value systems in conflict with dominant white societal norms, and takes a forensic approach to their construction. These conflicts are physicalised as sites or scenes, populated by objects that serve as both indexes of and metonyms for the intense power dynamics at play. In delineating the cruel endgames involved in the consumption of Black culture under conditions that remain compliant with white hegemony, R.I.P. Germain continues his investigation into the mechanisms of power and oppression, and the disastrous consequences of these processes for Black self-determination and ultimately Black life.
R.I.P. Germain’s practice traffics in double meanings, deep resonances and a tension between accessibility and occlusion. Trickster and guide, he tries to dance a fine line: making work that speaks to deep truths without cheapening them with explanations or flattening them out for easy consumption. Sedimented with layers dense with cultural meaning and reference, the extensive research undergirding R.I.P. Germain’s work draws from multiple genres of Black experience, history and culture - personal and collective, seeking to make art that is rigorous about his commitments and possibilities as a Black artist.
R.I.P. Germain has exhibited internationally and recent exhibitions include Supastore Southside, Slingbacks & Sunshine, a group show hosted by Sarah Staton at South London Gallery, Ways of Living #2, a group show presented by Arcadia Missa at NICO in Bari, Italy, Dead Yard, a solo show at Cubitt in London, UK, Double 6 with Ashley Holmes in the former courtroom at Leeds Town Hall in Leeds, UK, and Gidi Up, a solo show at Peak in London, UK. He has a forthcoming solo show in Leicester at Two Queens in Spring 2022 and is the recipient of the ICA Image Behaviour 2021 prize, which will culminate in a film that will premier in Spring 2022.
