Valerie Asiimwe Amani: To dismantle a house
In June 2022, we presented Valerie Asiimwe Amani's new performance and installation in partnership with the South London Gallery following five weeks in residence at the gallery.
The performance brought together Amani’s interests in the varied ways in which cultures intersect, be that through music, food, faith, texts or dialogue.
For this presentation she was particularly interested in the locality of the gallery and the Caribbean and African diasporic communities that live in the area. The work focused on the space of the home, and the public and private relationships that form within domestic spaces.
Through this performance the artist explored how people experience and share these spaces and how one can be denied space within the home.
I am excited about the chance to have a public performance since this hasn’t been possible recently due to the pandemic and a much welcomed exploration is moving my performative video work into a physical space with live participants.
Valerie Asiimwe Amani, Something Curated, May 2022
The multi-sensory performance took place across the main space and the Orozco garden at the South London Gallery and featured sound, both live and recorded, video, smell, text and an installation.
The work also featured artistic interventions from artists Rehema Chachage and Pamina Sebastião. Rehema looked at how the kitchen preserves communal knowledge through recipes and conversation. Pamina intervened in the bedroom as a place to challenge ideas of identity around childhood, queerness and art.
Our partnership with the South London Gallery was rooted in a collaborative approach in which external, UK-wide nominators put forward a selection of artists who have had limited exposure in London, for consideration by a panel. The panel was composed of representatives from RIA and the South London Gallery, and Korean-Canadian artist, Zadie Xa.