Bolatito Aderemi-Ibitola, the trans-disciplinary artist working primarily in time based art, interactivity and performance and winner of the 2018 ART X Prize with Access, is currently undergoing a three month residency at Gasworks (UK)
She takes us on a weekly recap of her experience and learnings from the residency. Take a look below.
Week 1
Arrival in London! Had my first tour of the Gasworks facilities. I was excited to see that ART X Lagos was on of the placards of the gallery’s foyer. That day, I was introduced to Alessio the gallery director, Sabel, the curator, and Joel and the program manager who were all part of our welcoming committee.
There are 4 other resident artists in my set.
Lorena Ancona, Mexico
Lauren Gault, UK/Ireland
José Rosales, Costa Rica
Ariadna Guiteras, Spain
Week 2
Really doing my best to become acclimatised, it’s still rather cold in London… and I don’t own a winter jacket! Regardless, I'm having a wonderful time and utilizing my studio space, my project plans are starting to take form. I am continuing a work on my “Color Series”, which deals with perceptions and reality. My first project Red. Pt. 1 focused on mental degradation and hallucination brought on by cerebral malaria. A main play in the project was the use of auditory and visual illusions- particularly the idea of cone fatigue - the viewer starts to see images that are no longer there.
In Blue Pt. 2, I am interested in the region formally occupied by the Achaemenid Empire, now the Middle East, and using that era and the stone lapis lazuli as an anchoring theme to speak to conflict, displacement, and war. For this project I want to focus on the idea of being displaced so I am using VR and the Visual and auditory illusions particularly the troxler effect perception.
Week 3
I’m taking my time and checking out some very interesting shows in London!
I went to see Hito Steyerl show at the Serpentine Gallery which was really impactful for me. I loved the way she used new tech, augmented reality, to create a social aware and locally relevant piece. I also spent some time at other museums. At the Tate Modern I was really moved by the Art and Society Exhibition particularly the piece at The British Library by Yinka Shonibare. (Ironically, I visited the other British Library that say to sign up as a researcher and see what I can find on the Achaemenid Empire)
Week 4
I took advantage of London’s location globally, to go and check out some amazing museums and sights in other countries! I went to Paris and spent a lot of my time at the Palais de Tokyo and Pompidou. I was taken in by the new show of Theaster Gates and truly inspired by the work of Julien Creuzet. There were a lot of VR works for me to also take notes from and help me reify some of the ideas of my project.
Week 5
This is where my a lot of my technical work begins!
I am starting to film and build the composite image of my work. Extremely excited to have the opportunity to experiment with this medium by way of this residency.
