Grace Ndiritu

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Grace Ndiritu
Ndiritu in 2022
BornJune 1982 (age 41–42)[1]
Birmingham, England
OccupationVisual artist
Notable workThe Nightingale, Still Life, Healing the Museum, The Ark, COVERSLUT

Grace Ndiritu (born June, 1982)[1] is a British-Kenyan visual artist.[1]

She likes to incorporate shamanic ritual and meditation in her art, to bring about human transformation.[2] She was the winner of The Jarman Film Award in 2022.[2]

Education[edit]

Ndiritu studied textile art at Winchester School of Art, UK and De Ateliers, Amsterdam. Her teachers included Marlene Dumas, Steve McQueen, Tacita Dean and Stan Douglas.[3][4]

Personal life[edit]

A result of this research was her ambitious post-internet living research/live art project, The Ark: Center For Interdisciplinary Experimentation,[5] that took place from 1 to 10 July 2017. Her ideas between the rural and urban have also been documented in Whitechapel Gallery's publication: Documents of Contemporary Art: The Rural (2019) MIT Press.[6]

Work[edit]

Ndiritu - Dreaming the Museum Back to Life

In 2012, Ndiritu began creating a new body of works under the title Healing The Museum.[7]

In 2019 Ndiritu led a group of museum directors, academics, activists and artists, in a reading group with meditation at the controversial Africa Museum in Tervuren, Belgium, as part of the conference Everything Passes Except the Past organized by Goethe Institut, on the restitution of objects and human remains from Europe back to Congo.[8][9]

Ndiritu declared that 2020 was The Year of Black Healing. In honor of this, she led a year long programme of exhibitions, performances and talks in collaboration with institutions across the world, which was featured on The Sunday Times radio show with Mariella Frostrup and Elephant magazine.[7]

Performance[edit]

Reading group Healing the Museum led by Ndiritu in the AfricaMuseum, Tervuren 2019

In 2017 she was invited to give a talk on her work at Fondation Ricard in Paris, alongside other renown speakers such as Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev - director of Documenta 13 art exhibition and Fabrice Hergott - director of Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris.[10]

She has also written essays about museums and exhibition making, Healing The Museum (2016), Ways of Seeing: A New Museum Story for Planet Earth (2017) and Institutional Critique: Racism & Spiritual Practice in the art world (2019).[11] Her most ambitious shamanic performance to date, A Meal For My Ancestors: Healing The Museum, included staff members of the U.N., NATO and EU parliament, activists, and refugees at Thalielab, Brussels (2018).[7] A briefing paper on climate change and refugees directly inspired by the performance, written by one of the participants, has now been published by the EU Parliament Research Services (May 2018).[12] To date Ndiritu's performances have taken place at Fundacion Tapies, Barcelona (2017),[13] Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers, Paris (2016),[14] Glasgow School of Art (2015),[15] Galveston Artist Residency Garden, Texas (2015),[16] Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2014),[17] Musee Chasse & Nature, Paris (2013),[18] Centre Pompidou, Paris (2013).[19]

Film/video[edit]

Still Life White Textiles

Her archive of over forty "hand-crafted" videos are largely held in the archive of LUX - British Artists Film/Video archive.[20] Notably her video The Nightingale has been shown during the 51st Venice Biennale (2005)[21] and is now housed the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.[22] Furthermore, her video Still Life White Textiles (2007) has been used as a reference in art appreciation and art history classes throughout colleges and universities since 2010.[23]

Photography[edit]

AQFM Vol. 8 Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver

Since 2010, Ndiritu has been creating an encyclopaedic archive of images, entitled A Quest For Meaning (AQFM). It is a universal narrative, a creation story from the beginning of time. Told through photography, it tells "stories" between similarly disparate objects and events from the Big Bang until now, by conjuring up and making new connections between them. Closely connected to her interests in the moving image, the various themes in AQFM perpetually expand to create photographic constellations.[24][25]

Painting[edit]

Post-Hippie Pop-Abstraction - Works on Paper

Ndiritu describes her method of painting as Post-Hippie Pop-Abstraction. It was used as the basis for her SWEATSHOP series of painting installations,[26] which look at the idea of the sweatshop from three juxtaposing yet overlapping angles: Indigenous Tribes who are producing culture and spirituality to feed the New Age movement in the West; The Art Studio - artists who are making objects to feed the art market; Third World countries - where poorly paid workers make products to feed the luxury fashion global consumer market.[27]

Research projects[edit]

COVERSLUT is a fashion and economic research project from Ndiritu founded in 2018. It focuses on dealing with issues of democracy, race, gender and class politics. It incorporates capitalist, pay what you can and ethical/environmental strategies into its economic framework. It is inspired by her own writings and thinkers such as Muhammad Yunus (micro loans), Charles Einstein (sacred economics), Vandava Shiva (economic feminism), and Stewart Brand (Whole Earth Catalog). Ndiritu's use of pay what you can in her own art practice has influenced several art institutions including Eastside Projects, Birmingham - Artists Led Multiverse Summit[28] and Kunsthal Ghent's[29] admission fee for their new building and Coventry Biennale, UK in 2019 - to adopt a pay what you can policy inspired by Ndiritu's ideas on institutional critique and structural change.

Writing[edit]

At age fourteen, Ndiritu was published by Oxford University Press.[30] More recently Ndiritu's experimental art writing has been published by Animal Shelter Journal Semiotext(e) MIT Press.[31]

Her political essays "A Call To White America: A Response to Donald J. Trump" (2016), "Notes To a White Left World: Activism in this Current Political Crisis" (2017), "Love in The Time of Trump: The Problematics of Kanye West" (2018)[11] and "The Healing of America" (2020)[32] are published online.

Her first book Dissent Without Modification[33] published by Bergen Kunsthall, Norway (2021) is a critical theory book, made up of research interviews with radical, progressive, forward-thinking women who started their careers in the 1990s. It is a post-hippie, skate, surf, street, neo-tribal book on youth culture.

Media coverage[edit]

In November 2021, Adrian Searle wrote a review for The Guardian praising Our Silver City 2094 and gave it four out of five stars.[34]

In April 2017, Ndiritu was interviewed for The Most Amazing People about death, love, art, grief, and River Phoenix.[35]

In 2014 she was named one of the "ten most important and influential artists under 40" by Apollo magazine in both their European and US issues.[36][37]

In September 2014, Apollo magazine included Ndiritu in both their European and US "40 Under 40", an annual issue dedicated to the ten most important and influential artists under forty.[36][37]

In 2011 Ndiritu's video Desert Storm (2004) was also compared to Titian's The Rape of Europa (1562), Delacroix's painting Death of Sardanapalus (1827), Goya's Disasters of War series of drawings and Gentileschi's painting Susanna and the Elders (1610), by Caroline Bagenal for Afterimage magazine.[38]

Exhibitions[edit]

Ndiritu's work is also housed in museum collections such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, British Council, London, Metropolitan Museum of Art,[39] New York and Modern Art Museum, Warsaw. Her work is also in the private collection of King Mohammed VI, Morocco, as well as The Walther Collection.[40]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "Grace Ndiritu". MutualArt. Archived from the original on 10 September 2021. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  2. ^ a b Elizabeth Fullerton (22 November 2022). "Grace Ndiritu's invitation to 'shamanic journeys' wins Jarman award". the Guardian. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  3. ^ van den Boogerd, Dominic (2016). "De Ateliers Guest Tutors". www.de-ateliers.nl/ (in English and Dutch). Amsterdam: De Ateliers. Archived from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  4. ^ Jansen, Charlotte (6 May 2023). "Artist Grace Ndiritu: 'Since the pandemic, people are more receptive to healing'". Financial Times. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
  5. ^ "Grace Ndiritu". Thearkcenterexperiment.com. Archived from the original on 24 December 2021. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  6. ^ The Rural | the MIT Press. Whitechapel: Documents of Contemporary Art. MIT Press. 12 March 2019. ISBN 9780262537162. Archived from the original on 17 January 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  7. ^ a b c "Western Museums Are Problematic: What Can be Done to Change Them?". 25 September 2020. Archived from the original on 20 October 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  8. ^ "Atelier: Tout passe sauf le passé - Goethe-Institut Belgien". Archived from the original on 26 February 2022. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  9. ^ "About Grace Ndiritu". gracendiritu.com/. cargo. Archived from the original on 5 May 2016. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
  10. ^ ""Le sens de l'Histoire", Grace Ndiritu". 28 June 2017. Archived from the original on 5 August 2017. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  11. ^ a b "Grace Ndiritu - Academia.edu". Archived from the original on 2 November 2018. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  12. ^ "The Concept of Climate Refugee: Towards a Possible Solution". Archived from the original on 26 February 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  13. ^ "FUNDACIÓ TÀPIES / Soñando que el museo vuelve a la vida: La vida interior de los objetos – Barcelonadot". Archived from the original on 5 August 2017. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  14. ^ Les Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers (2016). "A Therapeutic Townhall Meeting: Healing the Museum". Archived from the original on 5 August 2017. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
  15. ^ Glasgow School of Art, Reid Gallery. "A Return to Normalcy: Birth of a New Museum". Archived from the original on 29 June 2016. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
  16. ^ Schnell, Eric (2015). "Island Time: Galveston Artist Residency – The First Four Years". camh.org. Texas: Contemporary Art Museum Houston. Archived from the original on 31 May 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  17. ^ Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw. "Spring Rites: Birthing of a New Museum (Part 1)". Archived from the original on 5 August 2017. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
  18. ^ Musee Chasse & Nature, Paris (2013). "Women Who Run with Wolves". Archived from the original on 5 October 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
  19. ^ Centre Pompidou, Paris (2013). "For a Shamanic Cinema: alternative strategies in the practice of performance". Archived from the original on 5 August 2017. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
  20. ^ Ndiritu, Grace. "LUX Artists Moving Image". lux.org.uk. London: LUX. Archived from the original on 4 August 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  21. ^ Ndiritu, Grace (2005). Grace Ndiritu. Birmingham: Ikon Gallery Ltd. p. 14. ISBN 1-904864-09-0. Archived from the original on 19 April 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  22. ^ LaGamma, Alicia; Giuntini, Christine (2008). Essential art of African textiles. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300149623. OCLC 244293227.
  23. ^ Sayre, Henry M (2010). A World of Art (6th, 7th ed.). London: Pearson, Prentice Hall. ISBN 9780205887576. Archived from the original on 24 January 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  24. ^ Caldwell, Ellen C. (April 2016). "New American Painting". newamericanpaintings.com. Boston: New American Painting. Archived from the original on 21 September 2020. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  25. ^ Laurence, Robin (11 April 2018). "Time travels in Contemporary Art Gallery's Blue Hour". The Georgia Straight. Archived from the original on 13 April 2018. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  26. ^ Reid Gallery (2015). "Workers: Post-Hippie Pop-Abstraction (2015)". Archived from the original on 22 June 2016. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
  27. ^ d'Ettorre, Benedetta (2016). "A Return to Normalcy: Birth of a New Museum - Curating Contemporary Art". www.academia.edu. Academia. Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  28. ^ "Artist Run Multiverse Summit". Archived from the original on 29 January 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  29. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 January 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  30. ^ Lockwood, Lockwood (1992). The Oxford English Programme 4A: National Curriculum Key Stage 4 Bk.4. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198311761. Archived from the original on 5 August 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  31. ^ El Kholti., Hedi (2013). Animal Shelter (Issue 3 ed.). US: Semiotexte. ISBN 9781584351320. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  32. ^ "The Healing of America (Grace Ndiritu)". Archived from the original on 20 January 2021. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  33. ^ "Dissent Without Modification". Dissent Without Modification. Archived from the original on 7 February 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  34. ^ Searle, Adrian (23 November 2021). "Fire, flood and frozen goldfish: Our Silver City 2094 reveals Nottingham's future – review". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 16 December 2021. Retrieved 16 December 2021.
  35. ^ "#TMAP0015 - Grace N. [Full Episode]". Most Amazing People Interview. August 2017. Archived from the original on 26 February 2022. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
  36. ^ a b "40 Under 40 Europe". Apollo (July/August). 2014. Archived from the original on 28 July 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2016. The most inspirational young people in the European art world
  37. ^ a b "40 Under 40 USA". Apollo (September). 2015. Archived from the original on 28 July 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2016. The most inspirational young people in the US art world
  38. ^ Bagenal, Caroline (2011). "Ravishing Beauty: The Aesthetics of Rape in Grace Ndiritu's video Desert Storm". Afterimage. The Aesthetics of Rape (39). Rochester, New York: Visual Studies Workshop: gracendiritu.com/Press-Reviews/Afterimage-Magazine-The-Aesthetics-of-Rape-2011. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  39. ^ Alisa La Gamma (2009). "The Nightingale". metmuseum.org. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 20 July 2016. Met Collection Accession Number: 2009.375
  40. ^ "Grace Ndiritu: A Quest For Meaning Vol. 7: Bright Young Things | Klowden Mann | Artsy". www.artsy.net. Archived from the original on 27 March 2018. Retrieved 26 March 2018.

External links[edit]

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