Ronan Mckenzie opens a brand new artwork house with a joint exhibition
This year was a huge upheaval for creative people. The foundations of life were churned up, opportunities restricted and stability undermined. But given the uncertainty that the creative community is facing, Ronan Mckenzie has found her home.
The photographer and curator, whose work covered last year's edition of the Creative Review Photography Annual, has opened a new creative space in North London.
Based on personal experience with institutions, Home was founded to meet the need for creative spaces and infrastructures that contextualize the work of BIPOC artists – and is one of the few black art spaces in London.
The first project to be carried out under the "Home" banner is "Wata, Further Explorations", which was launched online this week in view of lockdown restrictions in England and will start on December 10th when the room will be open to the public should run in physical capacity. The exhibition is a collaboration between Mckenzie and multidisciplinary artist Joy Yamusangie, whose practice includes illustration, ceramics, text-based work, and more.
Artists, friends and now creative collaborators, the couple wrote and directed a short film, Wata, supported by Gucci, which they released earlier this year. The film takes inspiration from Mami Wata, a water deity who has ties to West Africa, Central Africa, and the Caribbean, and introduces a secondary character known as a musician. He explores identity, origins and intercultural connections through a strong mix of dance. Color and jazz. While underwater light tends to be diffuse and the sound obscured, the film is not diluted in any way but has energetic scores and vivid variations in the color blue.
The concept turned out to be so rich that Mckenzie and Yamusangie decided to flesh it out with Wata, Further Explorations, a joint work that highlights these threads, through continued exploration of the blue, white, and brown pallets and experimentation with the human form.
The show is a confluence of media and aesthetics that positions Yamusangie's living wall hangings in dialogue with McKenzie's fascinating photographs – a correlation that becomes clear in the placement of the pieces shown in the online exhibition.
Breeze by Ronan Mckenzie
The musician of Joy Yamusangie
The exhibition marks one of the many functions Home will offer. It is a hybrid space by nature and will take various forms when it opens, subject to lockdown restrictions. To cater to artist needs, it offers a library, work area, daylight photo studio and portfolio review sessions, as well as a wider list of cultural and community events that include movie nights, music events, lectures, workshops and even dinner clubs. Upcoming events already planned for next year include a discussion between Mckenzie and Yamusangie in February and the painter Cece Phillips' first solo show, I See In Color, in April.
The aim of Home is to promote the “conversation between the generations”, the exchange of skills and the feeling of community and identity. The latter was a crucial influence on the visual identity of the space created by Caterina Bianchini's studio Nari to create a sense of care and evolution as well. Subtle details like the merged serifs on the M and E of the word mark were developed to hint at the idea that "home is the feeling of self -hood and creative expression and the freedom and security to move forward," the studio explained in the social Media.
Wata, installed further explorations at home. Pictures: Vanessa Peterson
With accessibility, social engagement, and sustainability in mind, which are essential to Home, Mckenzie aims to create a more mindful space than what is typically found in the mainstream arts. “A new art space concept is urgently needed, not only because the representation in most gallery spaces is still not diverse enough to react to and appreciate the incredibly great talent that is currently working, but also because no spaces are capable Offering programs to the community and artistic development is at the heart of his practice, ”said Mckenzie about the impetus behind Home.
“Art spaces remain hierarchical and inaccessible for most – especially for the BAME audience. This makes it more difficult to enter artistic areas and makes space in them even more difficult. With my own experience of exhibiting work at institutions and working in fashion and art, I am aware of the difficulties of navigating the creative industry as a black woman and there must be a home among what is on offer in London right now. ”
WATA, more explorations by Ronan Mckenzie and Joy Yamusangie can be viewed online. The physical exhibition will open from December 10th at Home in North London. homebyrm.space