Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
By: Sara Raza
Sara Raza on Grace Ndiritu, a young London based artist who is enjoying an upwards ascent with an impressive portfolio of national and international exhibitions, that present a fresh style of politics and performativity.
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Grace Ndiritu, ‘Desert storm’, video still, 2004.
Grace Ndiritu is a young London based artist who is enjoying an upwards ascent with an impressive portfolio of national and international exhibitions, that present a fresh style of politics and performativity. Born in 1976 in Birmingham, Ndiritu studied textile art at Winchester School of Art and completed a postgraduate residency at De Ateliers in Amsterdam. Her practice has largely been motivated by major global issues concerning the inequality and degrading of human beings due to war and poverty. Such issues have formed the backdrop for her practice, which has developed into a powerfully thoughtful and visually invigorating body of work presented via video performances, which are infused with landscape, music, fabric and passion.
Having studied fashion and textiles prior to art, Ndiritu’s thought processes are still rooted in the practice of producing mood boards, where a collage of ideas are presented within a set frame. Since attending a postgraduate residency at De Ateliers she has transferred this process of creative thinking to the frame of the video screen, where her mood is exemplified in an animated fashion. However, this has not resulted in the artist producing a set of moving, talking paintings, which are easy on the eye and mind alike, on the contrary although there is a sense of painterly quality within the ways in which some of her works are displayed, they do in fact possess an ability to disrupt the smooth flow of continuity and cause rupture in the mind and body alike. This is predominantly due to the serious nature of the topics that she has chosen to explore. Compelling works such as Desert Storm (2004), Absolut Native (2003) and the highly acclaimed The Nightingale (2004) all incorporate the artist’s concerns about the impact of war, global politics and poverty.
In addition to formal academic training Ndiritu also admits that meditation and spiritual understanding are key forces behind many of her works, that are utilised by the artist in order to charge her works with a sense of transcendence. The artist understands that the medium she chooses to project her ideas – namely video – is already a highly stimulating technological form that has often been negatively used, and cites the global news media as one of the main perpetrators of mass-transmitting negative imagery. Through training and preparing her body and mind before embarking on her video performances, Ndiritu is also seen to take direction from many of the 1970s performance artists. Artists such as Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconti and Ana Mendieta, to name a few, are major sources of inspiration for Ndiritu who greatly appreciates the physical and mental endurance that these artists underwent in preparation for their intensely demanding works.
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Grace Ndiritu, ‘The Nightingale’, digital video, 2004.
Ndiritu has been the recipient of several prestigious awards and residencies such as having studied at the celebrated De Ateliers in Amsterdam, where she was exposed to internationally renowned artists and taught by the likes of Steve McQueen, Stan Douglas, Ceal Floyer and Marlene Dumas. In particular, Dumas greatly influenced Ndiritu and acted as an important mentor providing both artistic vision and empathy.
In 2004 Ndiritu received three awards consecutively commencing with the Perspective in Belfast at the Ormeau Bath Gallery and an Artsadmin Artist’s Bursary that helped develop her performative work and provided networking and support opportunities in London leading up to her meeting with independent curator Adelaide Bannerman. Bannerman featured Ndiritu within a major survey exhibition and public programme centred on the work of the seminal 1970s artist Adrian Piper, which included an array of UK and international critics, curators and artists such as DJ Spooky, Robin Deacon and others, who along with Ndiritu have been influenced by the work of Piper. Ndiritu was also awarded a two year residency and studio at London’s Delfina Studios, that provided highly essential studio space and a remarkable networking opportunity enabling her to integrate fully as a London based artist and also included fellow resident artists Goshka Macuga and Mark Titchner. During Ndiritu’s residency at Delfina she was frequently visited by curators like Sheena Wagstaff, chief curator and Catherine Wood, curator of performance both from Tate Modern, as well as an assortment of younger curators and writers who took an active interest in her practice. During her residency at Delfina Ndiritu produced the exhibition ‘TIME’ in 2005, in which she presented three videos Time (2005), Absolut Native and Desert Storm, all of which were produced during the residency period.
Alongside her collection of impressive awards Ndiritu has also benefited first hand from some of the various support structures that have been established in the UK to help sustain visual artists’ practices. Ndiritu has cited Arts Council England to have been extremely instrumental in supporting her projects and particularly her travel to Mali in 2006 out of which the ‘STILL LIFE and RESPONSIBLE TOURISM’ solo show at the Chisenhale Gallery was born. She acknowledges that although competition is fierce in London, institutions such as Arts Council England are a major source of funding for artists. Also, the previously mentioned Artsadmin has provided an invaluable resource not only financially via its bursary scheme, but also through the Artist Advisory Teams’ availability to provide reliable information and unbiased career advice when sought.
The European arts establishments have been keen to work with Ndiritu and she has found that exploration and inquiry are far greater within continental cities in comparison with working within London. Trends tend to be further advanced as well as a constant change in the ebb and flow of movement of people and ideas amongst European cities, which she believes London to be less a part of. On the other hand Ndiritu does claim that although London is economically stronger than its European counterparts, younger early career artists are too caught up in the social makeup of the lifestyle of ‘the artist’ than to actually contributing to the history of art and truly making a difference. One of Ndiritu’s solutions for assisting artists in London would be to introduce an ‘art card’ or ‘freedom pass’ system, which would allow artists free entry and access to art fairs, exhibitions and events as this would enable many to feel less economically pressured and allow them to focus on more art production and the exchange of ideas.
One of the major highlights in Ndiritu’s artistic career to date has been her participation in the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005, which was a collaboration between the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, where she had a solo show in 2005 and the Nuova Icona Gallery in Venice. This experience enabled her to celebrate the transition from a solo show in her home town of Birmingham to the international platform and prestige of the Venice Biennale. The selected gallery space for Ndiritu’s Venice preview was Oratario di San Ludovico a beautifully decaying church in which both The Nightingale was projected on the altar like a fresco painting and Desert Storm and Arrested Development (2003) were shown on monitors in adjacent side rooms. All three works were highly juxtaposed in their surroundings at the Oratario di San Ludovico and this installation could be understood as a symbol for the entwining and highly problematic relationship between state and religion within Catholic Italy. Interestingly, Ndiritu’s works were seen to quite explicitly toy with Western Catholic sensibility as The Nightingale playfully yet powerfully explored issues concerning the veiled other and witnesses the artist engaged in the enactment of the various functions of the female veil and their connotations both as a symbol of Eastern, Islamic modesty; as well as a marker for terror and camouflage. Simultaneously, Desert Storm whose title takes its inspiration from the American led first Gulf War and first invasion of Iraq, further presented a sense of defiance. The piece deals directly with the affects of war on the global woman’s body, which has often been subjected to a state of siege, rape and carnage. The video presents the artist’s body writhing on a large scale map, partially covered by a thin piece of semi transparent beige fabric; it is unclear if this is a state of ecstasy or torment. However, two things remained undoubtedly striking: the artist’s ability to give voice to the marginal and obvious disruption and inquisition into the role that religion plays in the destruction of the female form, both metaphorically and physically.
Aside from some the challenges that Ndiritu’s works posed within the Biennale her presence has led to increased attention from international institutions keen to work with the artist as a direct result to the high exposure that she received, such as working with Claire Doherty curator of the RSA Arts and Ecology commission. At the same time her confidence has grown accordingly and she recognises that the entire process has been daunting yet a highly enjoyable journey.
In January 2007 Ndiritu successfully began the year with a solo show at the Chisenhale Gallery in East London, with a dual concept show ‘STILL LIFE and RESPONSIBLE TOURISM’. Both adjacent works deal with the West’s ongoing fascination with Africa. STILL LIFE is seen to take partial inspiration from Henri Matisse’s relationship to African textiles within his paintings and the artist’s re-appropriation of the sensuality of the cloth against her own African female body. In conjunction, RESPONSIBLE TOURISM focuses on suggestive powerful ideas such as ethnic marketing, globalisation and the social and some of the economic impacts of the West’s international policy on Africa. Coinciding with this ambitious solo exhibition she is also showing in Geneva, Switzerland at the Centre d’Art Contemporain in the group show entitled ‘The Artist’s Body’, alongside influential performance art figures Marina Abramovic and Bruce Nauman both of whom have provided great a great source of inspiration towards the formation of Ndiritu’s own practice.
Continuing the momentum, Ndiritu has also been commissioned by the RSA to produce a piece of work that is specific to ideas inspired by current environmental issues. Ndirutu perceives this commission as part of the natural evolution of her practice, which is growing alongside the artist’s inquiry into key global issues that demand a sense of urgency to be critically evaluated using the landscape of visual art and performance. By using the RSA commission as a platform for both learning and growth Ndiritu aspires to engage in large scale outdoor video art commissions both in Europe and internationally and endeavours to produce video sculptures in the public space, that play on the ideas concerning geography and social interaction with the public. These works will be intended to create a dialogue between the urban or rural spaces sometimes on a epic scale, and will generate a sense of tension and reciprocity within spaces whereby access to video art is perhaps limited or not even acknowledged. Parallel towards producing monumental works she also hopes to extend her relationship with international museums and galleries.
This profile was commissioned as part of
a-n Collections: Radical positions
Sara Raza is a London based writer and curator and is a curator of public programmes at Tate Modern and editor for Art AsiaPacific magazine for the region of West and Central Asia. Her interests are in performance and performativity in relation to the built environment and monumental culture and she has lectured internationally at: San Jose State University, USA; ZKM, Karlsruhe Germany; Brown University, USA; Bishkek Museum of Fine Art, Kyrgyzstan; Queen Mary University, London; Westminster University, London and Tate Modern. She has also written for ArtReview, Bidoun, Artkrush, Contemporary, Edition5 (Switzerland), Tavoos (Iran), Nparadoxa and ArteEast as well as the 51st Venice Biennial Afghan Pavilion catalogue (2005), Helsinki Photography Festival (2005); Sweeny Gallery University of California, Riverside (2004); 2nd International Bishkek Contemporary Art Exhibition (2005) and Fonds Regional D’Art Contemporain De Lorraine (2007).
First published: a-n.co.uk April 2007
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