On Performance: Valerie Asiimwe Amani

June 2023
Roberts Institute of Art

Valerie Asiimwe Amani, To dismantle a house at South London Gallery, 2022.

Photo: Anne Tetzlaff

In this podcast, artist Valerie Asiimwe Amani discusses her first live performance To dismantle a house which was jointly commissioned by the Roberts Institute of Art and South London Gallery and presented in June 2022.

RIA and South London Gallery invited Valerie to participate in a new five-week performance residency at South London Gallery. The work she developed whilst in residence presented a multisensory installation and performance that explored the intersection of cultures, reflecting Amani's diverse interests.

During the conversation, Amani shares her experience of the residency, her feelings about performing live for the first time and reflects on the impact this experience has had on her artistic practice.

Valerie Asiimwe Amani

Valerie Asiimwe Amani (b.1991) is a Tanzanian artist and writer working through multidisciplinary explorations of performative video, text, textile and installation. Her practice interrogates the ways in which body erotics, language, place and the metaphysical are used to situate (or isolate) the self in and out of community. She holds an MFA from The Ruskin School of Art and has exhibited internationally including The GRASSI Museum (Leipzig); Rele Gallery (Lagos) and The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art (Cape Town).

South London Gallery

The South London Gallery is known for presenting new work by British and international artists, often by those who have rarely or never had an exhibition in a London institution. Group shows bring together works by established and lesser-known British and international artists, whilst an ongoing residency programme provides opportunities for artists to develop new work and exhibit at the SLG. The SLG has a track record of commissioning and presenting performance work spanning more than twenty years.