Overview
For their first solo exhibition in the UK, Dr Hannah Catherine Jones will transform Mimosa House into an immersive, sensory space, incorporating plants, oil blends, soundscapes and teas. Within this setting, the show will present new and existing works by the artist (many of which have never been exhibited due to the Covid-19 pandemic) in the form of videos, installations, performances, sound works and drawing.
Amidst a backdrop of ongoing interlocking global crises, OWED TO CHIRON brings together new works within the ongoing audiovisual series The Oweds, extrapolating connections between displaced peoples of the diaspora, and the cultural importance and healing potentialities of sound. The exhibition will continue The Oweds’ objectives of decolonisation through the vibratory frequencies of abundant community nourishment, sensory offerings, collective and individual listening, and vocalisations.
The Oweds intentionally play upon the Ancient Greek ‘ode’ - an epic poem set to music, intended to be sung - reconfiguring the spelling to illuminate the cultural and capital reparations required for decolonisation.
OWED TO CHIRON plays further with the multiple definitions of Chiron: the astronomical outer solar system object (or ‘queer celestial body’ as Jones refers to it), Chiron performs an erratic orbit pattern and refuses straightforward categorisation, simultaneously behaving like a comet, meteor and dwarf planet; the ancient Greek mythological centaur ‘Chiron’ known for polymathic gifts and abilities particularly in medicine, music, and botany, amongst others; and the astrological significance of Chiron as the wounded healer - a synthesis of the preceding astronomical and mythological definitions, representing how we work through our psychological wounds in life.
OWED TO CHIRON will centre on and utilise the voice, individually, collectively, literally and metaphorically through a diasporic lens including the interrogation, deconstruction and decolonisation of the title’s plays on and synthesis of Greco-Roman ideology as an integral element of the show.
During the exhibition period the gallery will be the site of the ‘Chiron Sessions’, a series of open public events curated by the artist in tandem with collaborators, including artist and energy worker Evan Ifekoya, and shamanic practitioner Seah Wraye, amongst others. Involving talks, sound healing, embodied listening and live performance, the Chiron Sessions will demonstrate Jones' exceptionally broad practice, as well as inviting participation from members of the public through a variety of celebratory and educational activities.
The gallery will also host the foundation of an integral part of the show, the ‘Chiron Choir’, a vocal ensemble open to diasporic women, femmes and non-binary musicians and non-musicians of all vocal abilities to take part over regular, closed rehearsal sessions. Building on Jones’ experience in founding and directing Peckham Chamber Orchestra, the artist will lead the co-creative sessions in the vocal embodiment of compositions (combinations of Jones’ and collective improvisations) which will culminate in a final live performance, open to the public.
All activities will be held in Mimosa House’s fully accessible building, free to attend, and with exception of the Chiron Choir (which will be organised via an open call and through existing relationships with grassroots community groups including Voice of Domestic Workers) will be open to all to attend.
The evolving components of the exhibition will come together to explore how queer, diasporic folx can move through the oftentimes traumatic complexities of contemporary life to continue on a trajectory of individual and collective healing.
Bio:
Dr. Hannah Catherine Jones (aka Foxy Moron) is a London-based artist, scholar, multi-instrumentalist, broadcaster and DJ (BBC Radio/TV, NTS - The Opera Show), composer, conductor and founder of Peckham Chamber Orchestra – a community project established in 2013.
Jones recently completed her AHRC DPhil scholarship at Oxford University for which the ongoing body of work The Oweds was presented as a series of live and recorded, broadcast, audio-visual episode-compositions, using disruptive sound as a methodology of institutional decolonisation and was awarded with no corrections. Jones was a recipient of the BBC Radiophonic Oram Award for innovation in music (2018) and has been nominated for the Paul Hamlyn Award as a composer.
Dr. Jones has lectured/performed/exhibited widely, internationally, and recently showed Owed to Diaspora(s) at NIRIN - 22nd Biennial of Sydney. theoweds.com
This project is produced with the generous support of Arts Council England
