PORTALS: Bending Spacetime

21 Jun-21 Jul 2024

PV 20 Jun 2024, 6-9pm

Gloriosa Superba, 2023. Credit: Kumbirai Makumbe

Overview

198 Contemporary is thrilled to announce the upcoming exhibition  Portals: Bending Spacetime

"The imagination is among the weapons on offer in societies of control."
– Kara Keeling 

A multidisciplinary group show featuring a collection of artists creating across video, sculpture, painting, 3D and new media. An exploration of Black imagination and possibility “Portals: Bending Spacetime" invites visitors on a transformative experience as they journey through Afro-futurist  aesthetics and adjacent themes, highlighting the unique narratives imbued in work created from Black and African Diasporic experiences.

At the root of the exhibition lies the exploration and cultivation of ‘Afro-Transportal’ spaces—conceptual safe havens and portals into the narratives and dreamscapes of the featured artists. Through immersive installations, interactive artworks, and dynamic storytelling, visitors will embark on a manifold structured journey, where the boundaries of time, space, and identity blur and reshape. The term “Afro-Transportal” encapsulates the essence of this exhibition—a celebration of portals of possibility and windows into alternate dimensions.

Inspired by the practice & concepts of "Black Quantum Futurism" and Kara Keelings texts on imagination, technology, futurity, and liberation in "Queer Times, Black Futures".

Portals: Bending Spacetime celebrates the power of imagination and creativity as tools for envisioning liberated futures beyond existing structures.

Featuring works by:

-              Sarah Ejionye

-              Yocheved & Shalome Francis

-              Rhyan Jordan

-              Fataba Kakulatombo

-              Akinsola Lawason

-              Kumbirai Makumbi 

-              Liz Mputu 

-              Shane Sutherland

-              Frank Xarate

This exhibition is curated by Shane Sutherland

198’s Artistic Programme is supported by Arts Council England & Freelands Foundation.