Gallery 1957’s “Constellations Part 2: Figures in Webs and Ripples of Space” exhibition opened on the 1st of August, 2024. A welcome continuation from the first part, this 25- artist group show is set to run until the 10th of October, 2024. Notably, Nuna Adisenu-Doe, Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson, and Katherine Finerty also co-curated this second part.
“Constellations Part 2 : Figures in Webs and Ripples of Space.” (Image Courtesy : Gallery 1957)
Gallery 1957 is a contemporary art gallery which Marwan Zakhem established on the 6th of March 2016. Quite interestingly, Ghana gained her independence on March 6, 1957. It is no surprise that the gallery was founded to promote Ghanaian and West African art. Though it still abides by its founding principle, Gallery 1957 has now expanded that purpose to the Global South and its diaspora.
The first part of the “Constellations” exhibition titled, “Constellations Part 1: Figures on Earth & Beyond” ran from the 14th of March to the 1st of June, 2024. It was a sister-city exhibition which began right after Gallery 1957’s 8th anniversary. Apart from the long-term collaborators and artists in residence, the group show included eleven first-time collaborators.
The first-time collaborating artists are; Clifford Bright Abu, Abdul-Salam Alhassan, Akosua Odeibea Amoah-Yeboah, Dela Anyah, Dzidzor Azaglo, Elolo Bosoka, Jasper Dafeamekpor, Rosemary Esinam Damalie, Victor Ehikhamenor, Samuel Baah Kortey, Rebekka Macht, Afrane Makof, Putin Ofori, Frederick Ebenezer Okai, Na Chainkua Reindorf, Ghizlane Sahli and Nyahan Tachie-Menson.
In addition to the gallery’s longtime collaborator, Jonathan Okoronkwo, there are also artists who participated in “Constellations Part 1.” These artists are; Lois Selasie Arde-Acquah, Phoebe Boswell, Adelaide Damoah, Denyse Gawu-Mensah, Henry Hussey, Sarah Meyohas and Lisa C. Soto.
“Constellations Part 1: Figures on Earth & Beyond” was an exploration of Donna Haraway’s line of reasoning in her book, “Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene.” In the ecofeminist scholar’s book, she is critical of the term “Anthropocene.” She considers it to be too human-centric and a denial of the evil of modernity. The Anthropocene epoch is characterised as the most recent period in geological time when man’s activities on earth began to significantly impact the climate and ecosystem. It appraises human beings as separate from the environment.
The exhibition explored an alternative medium known as the Chthulucene – Haraway’s reconceived epoch. The word “Chthulucene” is derives its existence from two Greek roots; ‘khthôn’: land and ‘kainos’: new, refreshing. It also refers to the ‘Pimoa cthulhu’ spider, a name which hints at locality and refers to a deity which dwells in the ocean or an octopus with multiple tentacles. The word ‘tentacles’ is one which is very significant in Haraway’s book as it highlights the interconnectedness of everything on earth with the inclusion of humans.
Donna Haraway invites us to consider a different future if we “Make Kins, Not Babies.” She reminds us of the need to re-examine our notions of blood as crucial to kinship and open up to the possibility of something beyond that. All in the bid to save the earth from precarious times that could possibly lead to our own extinction.
Participants of the first part of the exhibition pose possible solutions to achieve a world like that. They execute this using global narratives of creation myths, terrestrial paradise, animism, space colonisation, and many more concepts.
“Constellations Part 2: Figures in Webs and Ripples of Space” picks up from where the first part ended. The exhibition is an interconnected portal with a West African perspective. This unique perspective explores the notion of interconnectedness and decentering of self. It takes on Timothy Morton’s inquiry in his book titled “Ecology without Nature.”
Remarkably, this exhibition particularly forces us to reconsider our understanding of how we fit into this world. The group show encourages us to jettison the word, ‘nature’ as it creates a delusion that we are separate from nature. It really is a delusion, for we are all embedded in nature. Perhaps if we saw things that way, we would be less destructive in our dealings with the earth.
Unlike “Constellations Part 1,” this second part will be showing on the Third Floor of Galleria Mall, Kempinski Hotel Accra. Altogether, “Constellations Part 2: Figures in Webs and Ripples of Space” continues the research-based projections of the entire ‘Constellations’ idea.
