IMAGE: Larry Achiampong and David Blandy, ‘Finding Fanon Part One’ (2015), photo by Claire Barrett courtesy of Copperfield Gallery & Seventeen Gallery, London
Bringing together work by ten British African diaspora artists, the new exhibition at Kettle’s Yard shines a spotlight on some of the most important cultural and political issues of our era. Running from 10 July, Untitled: art on the conditions of our time, shows works from artists including NT, Larry Achiampong, Barby Asante, Phoebe Boswell and Evan Ifekoya. The title of the exhibition refers to the long-standing historical convention of leaving artworks ‘untitled’ in order to minimise reliance on contextual information, and to focus attention on the works themselves.
“This exhibition takes a bold curatorial approach to the often paradoxical question of curating ‘black survey shows’,” says curator Paul Goodwin. “Instead of focusing on blackness ahead of the works themselves, Untitled flips this and focuses on the works. Questions of blackness, race and identity are then shown to be entangled in the multitude of concerns – aesthetic, material and political – that viewers can encounter without the curatorial voice obscuring the works.”
The exhibition is a new reiteration of a production by the New Art Exchange in Nottingham, which was shown in 2017.
There’s also a last chance to catch Empathy Objects, which displays a series of artworks created by the gallery’s current Open House artist-in-residence, Enni-Kukka Tuomala. Enni-Kukka has been working with local groups and residents on the Campaign for Empathy x North Cambridge – claimed to be the world’s first community-centred campaign promoting empathy through art – which was designed to foster a sense of connection during the pandemic. This collaboration has resulted in a series of artworks inspired by the collection at Kettle’s Yard and people’s experiences in the local area. You can check it out until 7 July.
