Enam Gbewonyo, Ghanaian-British artist and curator, has been invited to Antananarivo by Fondation H for a research and creative residency as part of the exhibition Memoria : récits d’une autre Histoire [Memoria: accounts of another History] from June 9 to August 3, 2024.
As part of the exhibition Memoria : récits d’une autre Histoire [Memoria: accounts of another History], Enam Gbewonyo presents two works woven from nylon tights: The Oculus/The Third Eye (2019) and Concentric Growth 7(2023). Weaving is deeply rooted in the way of life of the Ewe tribe from Enam Gbewonyo's ancestral homeland in Ghana, a heritage that the artist reclaims. Tights, a basic element of Western women's wardrobes, whose industry offers a minimal selection of dark shades, become a symbol of the marginalization and invisibilization of black women. Enam Gbewonyo questions skin-whitening as a quest for a different appearance, and the concept of white skin as the aesthetic ideal.
During her residency, Enam Gbewonyo is working on a three-piece suspended textile sculpture installation that dialogues with her exhibited work, The Oculus/The Third Eye. Her aim is to use this new work to reopen a portal to ancestral mothers and weave connected links between the histories of West African and Malagasy maternal lineages. Through research and community engagement, Enam Gbewonyo plans to interweave the stories of Malagasy women from history to the present day in her work. Her piece will serve as an archive, sealing the legacy of these women as founders while providing a space for their spiritual fulfillment.
INTERVIEW OF ENAM GBEWONYO
BIOGRAPHY OF ENAM GBEWONYO
Enam Gbewonyo (b.1980, London) is a British Ghanaian artist and curator who lives and works in London. She is also the founder of the Black British Female Artist (BBFA)Collective - a platform that supports Black women artists. Gbewonyo studied BA European Textile Design at Bradford School of Art and Design and began her career as a knitwear designer in New York. Following six years in the industry, redundancy prompted her return to the UK and subsequent career change.
Her art practice investigates identity - womanhood in particular, whilst advocating the healing benefits of craft. She uses performance as a vessel, creating live spaces of healing that direct audiences to a positive place of awareness, countering systems of oppression such as racism and sexism. Her work enables audiences to face the truth of the dark past surrounding colonial legacies and the emotion sit brings forth.
Recent exhibitions include Nude Me/ Under the Skin: Dark Stars at TAFETA in London, Encounters (presented by Black Rock Senegal) at the Centre Culturel Blaise Senghor in Dakar, Senegal, Neo Custodians: Woven Narratives of Heritage, Cultural Memory and Belonging at the Bemis Center in Omaha, USA and Rites of Passage at Gagosian in London. Her work has been exhibited and showcased internationally at the 58th Venice Biennale, Art X Lagos, and UNTITLED Art Fair Miami to name a few.
Gbewonyo is represented by London-based gallery TAFETA, who specialize in 20th-century and contemporary African art. Her works are in several private and public collections including Fondation H, Madagascar and White & Case LLP, UK. She is a 2022 recipient of the Henry Moore Foundation Artist Award and winner of the 2022 Dentons Art Prize and New Art Exchange Future Exhibition Prize respectively. She is also a fellow of Kehinde Wiley's acclaimed Black Rock Senegal artist residency as well as Bemis Center, Omaha, USA.
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