The exhibition marks the culmination of the research and visual practice generated throughout Susana G. Larrañaga’s PhD in Digital Arts, which investigates the toxic and the Web 2.0.
Using an imaginary of the ruderal, of disturbed landscapes and their organisms, this post-digital exhibition brings forth a material and plural view of online and offline more-than-human relations. Reflecting on the accumulative toxic emergence of the Web 2.0: materially and psycho-socially polluting, online conspiracy theories concomitant to the pollution of mineral extraction.
Utilising a predominantly rubble-based artistic practice, which reversely mines data streams, Documents of the Web 2.0 explores anti-social practices online while shifting vision to anthropogenic landscapes. The artworks, which generate tension between medium and content, highlight the luxurious materiality of the digital and our current posthuman condition.
Join us in celebrating International Women’s Day with Clean Break Theatre and photography exhibition by Junior D. Kannah.
This event will showcase Catch, a new play from Clean Break, a ground-breaking theatre company which puts women’s voices at the heart of its work and creates lasting change by challenging injustice in and beyond the criminal justice system. Catch presents a compelling case for the necessity of women’s centre services and highlights how the criminal justice system places impassable barriers in front of women who are trying to survive.
This will be followed by a private viewing of Les Sapeuses: Women Dandies of the DRC, an exhibition of documentary photographs by Junior D. Kannah, curated by Sally Howard.
The female answer to the sapeurs, a male sartorial resistance movement started in 1920s Belgian Congo, les sapeuses, have emerged in the past decade as young Kinshasan women view the inherited traditions of ‘la sape’ as method of escape from rigid gendered roles and expectations. For some, la sape is a return to pre-colonial modes of strong African femininity; for others the movement, with its sapeuse solidarity clubs and rich socio-historical heritage, is a means of operating as a queer woman in a nation and era in which homophobia is rife.
More information about the exhibition can be found on the University of Greenwich Galleries website by following the link here.
This event falls on International Women’s Day (IWD), a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women.
This year’s theme for IWD is #EmbraceEquity and Clean Break recognises that the treatment of women by the criminal justice system is one of the clearest demonstrations that our society is still unequal and that women are judged by different standards to men. Their vision is of a society where women can realise their full potential, free from criminalisation. Clean Break believes that theatre enables women to challenge their oppression by society in general and by the criminal justice system in particular.
Please note: These tickets are limited, please let us know in advance if you are unable to attend on the day.
Join us as we celebrate LGBT+ History month against the backdrop of the Les Sapeuses: the Women Dandies of the DRC exhibition. The panel will be incorporating speakers across disciplines in Sartorialism and Queer history and chaired by Curator, Sally Howard.
Following the discussion there will be a drinks reception in the Heritage Gallery where guests are invited to network.
Les Sapeuses: the Women Dandies of the DRC documents the life and style of the sapeuses, the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s ‘female dandies’ subculture, through the reportage photography of Kinshasa-based photographer Junior D. Kannah.
The panel:
Sally Howard is curator of this exhibition, which emerged from a 2018 story on which she collaborated with Junior Kannah for Marie Claire USA. Sally Howard is a UK-based broadsheet journalist and the author of several books on social affairs and feminism. She holds a Master’s in Gender Studies and the Global South from SOAS, University of London.
Heather Moradeyo is a Nigerian activist and Social Media Coordinator for UK Black Pride and will be speaking on Queer Sartorialsims.
Eka Ikpe is an academic at King’s College London doing work on the political economy of the fashion industry in Africa. The panel will draw on her work on the political economy of the fashion industry in Africa; fashion and development. We will also talk about fashion practices as resistance and queer approaches from other speakers.
About the exhibition
The sapeurs – or Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes (the Society of Tastemakers and Elegant People) – sought to resist French and Belgian colonial rule by adopting and pastiching the ‘master’s clothes’, with prominent sapeurs also being key players in influential Parisian anti-colonial pressure group L’Amicale.
The sapeur style and gentlemanly code of honour was formalised in the mid-20th century under the leadership of ‘dapper’ Papa Wemba, a rumba artist who was known for his taste in dazzling white suits and monochrome spats. Bemba influenced a later generation of sapeurs who rose to political power through the turbulent years of the Congolese and continental wars and whose subculture has now entered the mainstream (controversial president of the DRC, Joseph Kabila, is a self-confessed sapeur).
The female answer to the sapeurs, les sapeuses, have emerged in the past decade as young female Kinshasans view the inherited traditions of la sape as method of escape from rigid gendered roles and expectations. For some sapeuses, who traditionally dress in masculine suits and accessories imported via the Congolese diaspora in Belgium and France, la sape is a return to pre-colonial modes of strong African femininity; for others the movement, with its sapeuse solidarity clubs and rich socio-historical heritage, is a means of operating as a queer woman in a nation and era in which homophobia is rife.
Les Sapeuses: the Women Dandies of the DRC – University of Greenwich Galleries (greenwichunigalleries.co.uk)
Image credit: ‘Inda Gabie’, photograph taken by Junior D Kannah.
Please join us for for a private viewing of Les Sapeuses: The Women Dandies of the DRC at the Heritage Gallery, Greenwich Maritime Campus, on Wednesday 8 February.
There will be an opening talk, chaired by Yemisi Mokuolu, Founder & CEO of Hatch Ideas Worldwide, with curator of Les Sapeuses, Sally Howard. It will include a video contribution from photographer Junior D Kannah, on his work shown in the exhibition.
This event is FREE but please do register below if you would like to attend.
Sally Howard is a UK-based broadsheet journalist and the author of several books on social affairs and feminism. She holds a Master’s in Gender Studies and the Global South from SOAS, University of London.
Junior D. Kannah is a photojournalist based in Kinshasa. A regular for agencies AFP/Getty, Kannah’s images record the tumult and social change in his home nation.
Yemisi Mokuolu is an award-winning live events producer and creative industries business consultant. She founded Hatch Events in 2002 to programme and raise the profile of African arts and artists globally. She is the founder of ‘Out of Africa’ arts & culture brand, co-founder of ‘Asa Baako – One Dance’ festival in Ghana and co-founder of ‘Five Cowries’ arts education charity in Nigeria. In 2021, Yemisi became a recipient of the “Global Africa Award”
