Perceive sea, dunes, mountains in move exhibition at 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning

The Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland in association with 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning presents Perceive sea, dunes, mountains in move, is a group exhibition featuring the works of seven artists who work across installation, sculpture, sound and film.

In Diasporic Landscapes of Longing (from “Art on My Mind: Visual Politics“), bell hooks explores the visual politics of art and aesthetics through the work of artist and photographer Carrie Mae Weems. bell hooks returns to the experience and subjectivity as a realm of radical site of remembrance, guiding the reader on how the subjective knowledge and lived experiences that form within the spaces that surround us, are often reflected, engaged and confronted in the practices of artists of colour.

Similar to the explorations that bell hooks touches on, the works of Ama Essel, Sasha Huber, Ima Iduozee, Liisa-Irmelen Liwata, Mikki Noroila, Man Yau and Haliz Yosef traverses across diasporic experiences, narratives, emotions, place-making, commonality, and belonging. Employing various conceptual starting points and an array of materials and techniques, the group exhibition makes tangible the manners in which visual artists analyse and embody their local, national, and global identities.

The exhibition follows a rhizomatic structure that further underlines the diversity of lived experiences from the exhibiting artists. The curatorial authorship is dispersed accordingly, using practices of care and collaboration, to emphasise contributors’ and participants’ intellectual and ethical agency.

Curated by Nimco Kulmiye Hussein and Neicia Marsh.

This exhibition has been generously supported by Languid Hands (opens a new window), Frame Contemporary Art Finland (opens a new window) and 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning (opens a new window). Special thanks to Arts Council England (opens a new window), Freelands Foundation (opens a new window)and London Borough of Lambeth (opens a new window).

About 198 Contemporary Arts & Learning

198 Contemporary Arts & Learning (a centre for visual arts, education and creative enterprise) was founded in 1988, 198’s motivation initially focused on the need to provide a platform for Afro-Caribbean and Asian artists as part of the Black arts movement. For nearly 30 years their work has evolved and continued to develop with projects that consider the work and study of emerging cultural identities, through exhibitions, workshops, education projects and critical debate with artists, thinkers, activists, young people, as well as local and artistic communities.

About the artists

Ama Essel (opens a new window) (b. 1992) is a craft scientist and a pedagogue who specialises in rya technique. Her research focuses on colour and its semiotic significance in Finnish rya rugs and how the technique has been applied in fashion throughout the years.

Sasha Huber (opens a new window) (b. 1975) is a Helsinki-based internationally recognised visual artist-researcher of Swiss-Haitian heritage. Huber’s work is concerned with the politics of memory, care and belonging in relation to colonial residues left in the environment.

Ima Iduozee (opens a new window) (b. 1988) is a Finnish-Nigerian filmmaker, choreographer and DJ based in Helsinki. His work explores themes of migration, identity and the intersections of culture within society and the communities around him, to weave intimate stories of magic, perseverance and hope.

Liisa-Irmelen Liwata (opens a new window) (b. 1998) is a Finnish-Congolese visual artist based in Helsinki, Finland. In her works Liwata discusses the connections between body, land and language. As a person who has grown up at the intersection of several cultures, she is interested in exploring the points where one’s being is interlaced.

Mikki Noroila (opens a new window) (b. 1990) is a Helsinki-based multi-disciplinary artist working between moving image, installation, sound, and text. Their current artistic practice explores the themes of archival memory, and marginalised histories from the point of view of family histories.

Man Yau (opens a new window) (b. 1991) is a Helsinki-based sculptor. Her artistic practice explores identity and the experience of exoticization. She uses material artifacts and traditional techniques to discuss the role of everyday objects, values, and aesthetic agents in racialized, gendered, and commonly accepted narratives.

Haliz Yosef (opens a new window) (b. 1990), frequently works with memories, cultural-identity and language which mediates through moving image, sound art installations where they all interplay site-specifically.

Perceive sea, dunes, mountains in move exhibition at 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning (198 Railton Rd, London SE24 0JT) from 13 October until 3 December, admission is free. Opening hours: Monday & Tuesday by appointment only, Wednesday to Friday 11am-5pm, Saturday & Sunday 12pm-5pm.