About the exhibition
The current social and political conditions have the ability to undermine our resolve and break our spirit. In the gallery, a makeshift laboratory is presented as a site for self-reflection and care. Artists Cole Ndelu and Dimple B. Shah arrive in Wakefield as artistic explorers from afar, they bring with them experimental approaches and metaphysical ideas that may help us.
Ndelu addresses intimacy and close personal relations through photography. She works with layers of materiality and extends the photographic plane beyond its two dimensions. Her work suggests a re(disc)overy of the self in light of disembodiment brought about by our social and online personas.
Shah offers techniques and rituals through nature, materials and alchemy. Processes of healing and self-care can be meditated upon through her responses to Wakefield’s surroundings and through processes carried out in The Art House’s printmaking workshop. Her work is finally realised in the lab, and during performances where she takes shamanistic form offering public consultations on self-preservation.
About the artists
Dimple B. Shah is a multidisciplinary artist from Bangalore, India, and based in Vadodara, Gujarat. Across her career, Shah has worked in painting, printmaking, installation, video art and performance. With an intention to blend these media into an interdisciplinary language and a developing practice spanning decades, her work has primarily found its focus through humanitarian issues.
Cole Ndelu is a conceptual portrait and fashion photographer based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Her work counters popularised representations of black people and of Africa by creating imagery in which black people are a central focus. Her work is a celebration of blackness and a reflection of the love of the artist for their kin.
Image: Dimple B. Shah by Cole Ndelu
