“It’s all too easy to become apathetic and numb to all of the parallel histories being re-lived in our world today so I want my work to take that apathy and numbness and provide a space for people to feel.”
Alberta Whittle, 2022
deep dive (pause) uncoiling memory is an exhibition by artist Alberta Whittle commissioned on the occasion of the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, by the Scotland + Venice partnership. In an installation of work comprising tapestry, film and sculpture, and spanning two rooms in a former boatyard, Whittle encourages us to slow down, in order that we may collectively and critically consider the historic legacies and contemporary expressions of racism, colonialism and migration, and begin to think outside of these damaging frameworks.
Alberta Whittle takes us behind the scenes of deep dive (pause) uncoiling memory, as she discusses the themes of the show and provides insights into her process.
“The title of this work [the deep dive (pause) uncoiling memory installation], it’s got that very deliberate pause, and that pause is there to encourage us to settle… to settle into this state where we can really think, what have we forgotten? And so, by looking at memory, and actually almost using memory studies as a way to encourage this process of unlearning, I think we can really start to band together and think about change and encouraging different voices, intervening into what we understand of as history.”
Alberta Whittle, 2022
Extract of pages 16 to 18 from deep dive (pause) uncoiling memory publication.
deep dive (pause) uncoiling memory, 2022. Scotland + Venice and The Modern Institute/ Toby Webster Ltd., Glasgow. Photographer Cristiano Corte, © Alberta Whittle.
Alberta Whittle’s creative practice is motivated by the desire to manifest self-compassion and collective care as key methods in battling anti-Blackness. She choreographs interactive installations, using film, sculpture and performance as site-specific artworks in public and private spaces. Whittle’s work is often made in response to current events and draws on her research into the African diaspora and the decolonisation of Western histories, with major themes in her work including colonialism, xenophobia and climate change. Her practice builds on ideas of the Caribbean Gothic and Hauntology, embracing storytelling to explore ideas of displacement and kinship, with the desire to cultivate hope and personal healing as a form of resistance against a background of catastrophe.
An in-depth analysis around the themes explored in Alberta Whittle’s work are explored and commented on by Kate M. Wilcox, a participant in this year’s Professional Development Programme, a programme that see’s students and early career practitioners from universities, colleges and arts organisations across Scotland gain invaluable experience of invigilating an international art exhibition. The link below is an extract that has been taken from Invest in Love: Decolonial, Feminist, and Queer Curatorial Approaches in “deep dive (pause) uncoiling memory”, a dissertation submitted for the Degree of MLitt Museum and Gallery Studies at the University of St Andrews by Kate M. Wilcox:
Alberta Whittle discusses deep dive (pause) uncoiling memory with Veronica Simpson
‘INVEST IN LOVE’
In an interview conducted by Emily Dinsdale from DAZED, Alberta Whittle discusses how her work reiterates themes of love. Click the link below for the full interview.
Alberta Whittle unravels Venice’s often troubling relationship with Blackness
Alberta Whittle’s work at La Biennale di Venezia looks at how anti-racism can proactively address racial trauma as well as interrogate the histories of countries and cities such as Venice for their roles in global trade, colonialism and slavery. Louisa Buck from the Art Newspaper recently held a conversation with VIAD Research Associate Alberta Whittle, around these issues. See the article in the link below.
Alberta Whittle, Lagareh – The Last Born, (film still – single channel video), 2022, Photographer Jaryd Niles-Morris, © Alberta Whittle. Courtesy the artist, Scotland+Venice, and Forma.
Professional Development Program
Shalom Mushwana is a student at the University of Johannesburg and is in the process of completing his Honours in Fine Art. Shalom participated in this year’s Scotland + Venice Professional Development Programme which provides opportunities for students and early career practitioners to work at the Scottish venue in Venice. Shalom’s involvement was an exciting and new collaboration between Scotland + Venice and the University of Johannesburg. Shalom travelled to Venice in October 2022 for four weeks to work alongside other participants from across Scotland to gain invaluable experience of invigilating and visiting an international art exhibition. Ahead of his travels he spent some time (albeit remotely) with the artist and other participants hearing first-hand about the production techniques employed by Whittle and production partners and unpack the themes explored in the work.
LAGAREH: THE LAST BORN
Alberta Whittle’s film Lagareh: The Last Born – a part of her larger work deep dive (pause) uncoiling memory – focuses on Scotland’s historical links to the transatlantic slave trade and highlights the strength of contemporary Black womxn in Europe, West Africa and the Caribbean. These geographical areas formed a ‘triangular route’ during the colonial era. Viewers of the film can reflect on the traumatic legacy of slavery and its potential impact on policing and incarceration today. The film toured to six different venues including The Bioscope Independent Cinema in Johannesburg.
MIND HOW WE GO
Camara Taylor is an artist living in Glasgow. Working with their various selves, collaborators and organisations, they make still and moving images, texts, exhibitions among other things. Projects tend towards recalcitrance, ambivalence and low frequency objections found in the silt, slop and snap. Camara Taylor was commissioned by Scotland + Venice to write a short text in response to Alberta’s new film, Lagareh – The Last Born. Broken into seven parts, Taylor’s text ‘mind how you go’ unravels ideas, thoughts and forms of questioning around abolition and ancestry, made apparent in the now, in the then, and in Scotland.
Photographer Matthew Arthur Williams, © Alberta Whittle. Courtesy the artist, Scotland+Venice, and Forma.
UK Premiere and Scottish cinema tour for Alberta Whittle’s film Lagareh – The Last Born
Scotland + Venice and LUX Scotland organised a UK Premiere and Scottish cinema tour of Alberta Whittle’s new film, Lagareh – The Last Born, at venues across Scotland between September 2022 and March 2023.
Commissioned by Scotland + Venice and Forma, the film’s Scottish screenings in Glasgow (Glasgow Film Theatre, Tuesday 20 September), Inverness (Eden Court, October), Lerwick (Mareel, November), Aberdeen (January 2023), Skye (Broadford Town Hall, February 2023) and Ayr (Ayr Town Hall, March 2023), will take place simultaneous to its presentation as part of Whittle’s critically acclaimed current exhibition, deep dive (pause) uncoiling memory, at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, showing there until November 2022.
The Scottish cinema tour is programmed by LUX Scotland with support from Art Fund.
Alberta Whittle, Lagareh – The Last Born, (film still – single channel video), 2022. Photographer Matthew Arthur Williams, © Alberta Whittle. Courtesy the artist, Scotland+Venice, and Forma.
PROJECT DETAILS
The exhibition deep dive (pause) uncoiling memory is commissioned on the occasion of the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, by the Scotland + Venice partnership with funding support from the National Lottery through Creative Scotland.
Scotland + Venice is a partnership between Creative Scotland, British Council Scotland, National Galleries Scotland, Architecture & Design Scotland, V&A Dundee and the Scottish Government.
The 2022 Scotland + Venice presentation is a multi-partner project commissioned by Scotland + Venice, initiated by Glasgow International and supported by Glasgow Life through Tramway.
The film Lagareh was co-commissioned and produced by Forma Arts, London.
The tapestry was co-commissioned and produced by Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh.
Creative Partners in the project include: Art Night, Glasgow Sculpture Studios and the Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Centre (VIAD), University of Johannesburg.
The project and exhibition were supported by funding from: British Council Scotland, The Elephant Trust and the Henry Moore Foundation.
