Nov 22, 2022
Grace Ndiritu, Black Beauty
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Grace Ndiritu, Black Beauty
For Grace Ndiritu’s Coverslut W/ lecteur
Grace Ndiritu: A Quest For Meaning Vol. 7: Bright Young Things
For the seventh edition of her A Quest For Meaning series and her first solo exhibition in Los Angeles, Ndiritu pushes the design of her new installation by incorporating fully-painted gallery walls, as well as her customary painted squares, which she calls ‘Bright Young Things’. These design elements become a backdrop through which Ndiritu discuss two subtexts in the show, firstly 'painting as a medium of photography', by creating a fully immersive, painted environment in which to view the photographs; and secondly the contemporary relationship between Europe and Africa seen through use of rephotographed archival images from the Rif War between Spain and Morocco in the early 20th century, which reflects a historic Orientalist viewpoint, which is the foundation for the current problematic relationship of mass migration from both Arab and Sub-Saharan Africa to Europe and the tensions this movement causes on both sides of the Mediterranean.
Ndiritu’s A Quest For Meaning (AQFM) series is a universal narrative, a creation story she tells from the beginning of Time. Told through photography, it tells ‘stories’ between similarly disparate objects and events from the Big Bang until now, by conjuring up and making new connections between them. Abstract photography allows Ndiritu to explore the formalism of the still life genre in such a way that what appears in the microcosm of the photograph is a reflection of what occurs in the macrocosm of the universe. Closely connected to her interests in the moving image, performance and shamanism, the various themes in AQFM perpetually expand to create photographic constellations. Previous iterations of AQFM were exhibited at locations including Glasgow School of Art (2015), Paris Photo Los Angeles (2015), L’apartment 22, Rabat, Morocco (2014), MAC, Belfast (2014) and La Ira de Dios, Buenos Aires (2014).
Grace Ndiritu and Nancy Popp at Zona Maco Mexico City
Excerpt from Grace Ndiritu's "The Nightingale, 2003" @ The Cooper Gallery, Harvard University
Video Installation 'Curtain Show' by Grace Ndiritu (London)
Grace Ndiritu
Grace Ndiritu studied at the same art school that I did - Winchester school of art. We also studied the same course, Textile art, although I ended up switching to Fine art at the beginning of my third year (risky move I know!). A Tutor I had, whilst on the course introduced me to her and I've followed her work ever since. I even sent her an email a while back, she gave me a few pearls of wisdom in response. Thanks Grace!
Still Life, 2007 Video Installation 2010 as part of 'Curtain show' exhibition at Eastside projects.
Grace Ndiritu states that her purpose as an artist is 'to rewrite history through the immediacy of Performance Video Art. It is an attempt to give back what has been taken from those who lack power: their dignity'. Ndiritu's provocative films are as wide-ranging in their preoccupation with global politics as they are deeply personal and introspective. She cleverly manoeuvres the viewer in and out of her subject matter, using imagery, music and text that is concurrently sensual and familiar, awkward and disturbing. In this way, Ndiritu seems to implicate each viewer individually while simultaneously reminding us of the wider context in which we live, love, work, play and survive.
In her solo show at Delfina Studio, London (November 2005) Ndiritu presented three works, 'Time' (2004), 'Desert Storm' (2004) and 'Absolut Native' (2003). In each of the videos Ndiritu is physically present, 'performing politics' by using her body as a powerful tool to reflect wider society's concerns on issues of globalization, war and the systematic use of rape against women. This powerful, performative constant forces the viewer to grapple with Ndiritu's concerns, in particular the discourses surrounding sexual, political and economic freedoms.
More information here
Grace Ndiritu, My Blood Self: Artificial Beauty (The Mask), 2006. Video Installation.