What Does The Water Taste Like?, Whitechapel Gallery, 2022, mixed media

Whitechapel Gallery

London Open 2022

"There are big themes tackled here too. Henry/Bragg’s photos of vampires and alien abductions are funny, heart wrenching images of living with cancer, Juliana Kasumu’s installation is a paean to the community and rituals of Afro hair salons, Abbas Zahedi displays a painting by his father, whose UK visa was revoked when Abbas was just a kid. This is art about perseverance, survival and injustice."  - Timeout


What makes London’s art scene so vibrant? What are the concerns of the next generation of artists? What insight does their work offer in challenging times?

This triennial exhibition showcases a cross-section of the most dynamic artistic talent from across the capital. Established in 1932, this much-celebrated open submission show features 46 London-based artists working across painting, sculpture, moving image, installation and performance.

Since the last London Open in 2018, the city has experienced the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, demonstrations demanding racial and climate justice, and widespread questioning of institutions and their structures.

The London Open 2022 traces the ways in which artists have witnessed and responded to these events with resilience and heart. In times of hardship and crisis, and when exhibitions were cancelled and moved online, these artists experimented with new sites of production and means of dissemination, from the kitchen table to the back garden.

The exhibition is loosely structured as a journey from the personal to the social, moving from individual to collective concerns, the cathartic to the poetic, the political and the environmental. - thelondonopen.org

Still from, What Does the Water Taste Like?

2019 | Run time 7:46

Digital | Film

single-channel video, stereo sound, HD and SD video footage; 8 minutes, looped, colour/black & white.


Prompted by intimate conversations, ocean-made cyanotypes and archival footage, "What Does The Water Taste Like?" questions the production of identity as it relates to her own personal affiliations as a British- Nigerian. Demonstrated the complex ways in which the past and present remain in constant dialogue.

ON VIEW:

 Nov 9th – Dec 8th, 2019 Antenna Gallery, New Orleans

March 11th - March 13th, Carroll Gallery, New Orleans

Screening on April 19th at Images Festival,  Toronto, Canada



Stills from, What Does The Water Taste Like?, 2019

Photographs from, What Does The Water Taste Like?, 2019

Installation View, What Does The Water Taste Like?, Carroll Gallery, 2020

Using Format