In her first solo exhibition at a major UK institution, Botswanan-Canadian artist, Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum creates dynamic works newly commissioned for The Curve Barbican Centre Silk Street, London. Sunstrum studied International Studies with concentration in Transnational Cultures at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and holds an MFA in Multidisciplinary Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. She lives and works in The Hague, The Netherlands.
In ‘It Will End in Tears’ the artist fills The Curve with theatrical installations, building a dynamic architectural intervention resembling film and stage set design. Sunstrum transforms the gallery into a series of theatrical sets which the viewers will move through in order to view the artist’s paintings. Overall the exhibition weaves together the story of a femme film character living in an imagined colonial outpost. This reflect the artist’s own experience of living across Africa, Southeast Asia and the United States as well as her her ongoing research in ethnography, ecology and quantum physics.
‘It Will End in Tears’ features the artist’s boundary-crossing practice which centers Black female identity in the discourse of postcolonialism and neocolonialism, highlighting the contributions of overlooked historical figures while emphasising modes of knowledge and communication beyond the status quo. The figures in Sunstrum’s works are often her alter-egos. They’re situated in undefinable landscapes which is an exploration of cultural embeddedness within geology that reflects overlapping issues of colonialism, capitalism, and the global migration crises. With references to domestic environments, rurality and systems of control the artist is curious about journeys into processes of disintegration. These are processes that are at once intimate, violent, sensual, madding and tender all in the pursuit of home and wholeness.
Key exhibitions and performances include ‘You’ll be sorry’ at Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa (2023); ‘The Pavilion’ at London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE, UK (2023); 15th Sharjah Art Biennale (SB15) in the UAE (2023), ‘I have withheld much more than I have written’ at Galerie Lelong in New York (2022); as well as the Michaelis School for the Arts at the University of Cape Town, SA (2018). In 2017 the City of Johannesburg commissioned her work of permanent glass installation titled ‘Oh, wanderer’. The exhibition opens on the 18th of September 2024 and will run until the 5th of January 2025.
